Http://cisupa
Delaware Act of 1851 -- prohibiting free people of color from
entering the state unless as a servant for a white man or as a seaman on a trading vessel.
1853.
0744. Kent County. Free people of color petition the government to repeal the 1851 acts
regulating slaves, free people of color, servants, and apprentices. The laws are “grievously
oppressive.” Especially burdensome was the stipulation prohibiting free people of color from
entering the state unless as a servant for a white man or as a seaman on a trading vessel. This
prevented family members from visiting one another if they lived across state lines. There were
also penalties for resident free persons of color who stayed out of the state more than sixty days.
“We endeavor to perform the duties of good, orderly citizens, and it bears hard on us not to be
allowed the privilege of seeking to do better elsewhere without losing our residence and being
subject to arrest, fine, imprisonment and sale, provided we return temporarily to visit our families
and friends.” They argue that, like their “white brethren,” they profess the Christian religion and
ask God for “salvation of our souls hereafter.” Petitioners {27}: America, Moses; Bell, Alexander;
Brown, Francis; Draper, John; Jacobs, Richard.
0746. New Castle County. Residents protest the 1851 laws concerning free people of color and
slaves, servants, and apprentices. They argue that the laws are driving free people of color out of
Delaware and into New Jersey and Pennsylvania, “where their just rights are better protected.”
The emigration caused an increase in the price of labor. Meanwhile, thousands of dollars were
being lost by Delaware steamboat owners and businessmen because free people of color did not
enter the state for religious services as they had previously. In short, the laws were neither just
nor humane and should be repealed. Petitioners {39}: Allan, William; Eastburn, Isaac; Heald,
Caleb; Lindsey, Joseph; Mitchell, Abner.
0749. New Castle County. Free people of color petition the government to repeal the 1851 acts
regulating slaves, free people of color, servants, and apprentices. The laws are “grievously
oppressive.” Especially burdensome was the stipulation prohibiting free people of color from
entering the state unless as a servant for a white man or as a seaman on a trading vessel. This
prevented family members from visiting one another if they lived across state lines. There were
also penalties for resident free persons of color who stayed out of the state more than sixty days.
“We endeavor to perform the duties of good, orderly citizens, and it bears hard on us not to be
allowed the privilege of seeking to do better elsewhere without losing our residence and being
subject to arrest, fine, imprisonment and sale, provided we return temporarily to visit our families
and friends.” They argue that, like their “white brethren,” they profess the Christian religion and
ask God for “salvation of our souls hereafter.” Petitioners {221}: Anderson, Levi; Biyard, Bernard;
Graves, Robert; Jackson, James; Price, Joseph.
0754. New Castle County. Residents protest the 1851 laws concerning free people of color and
slaves, servants, and apprentices. They argue that the laws are driving free people of color out of
Delaware and into New Jersey and Pennsylvania, “where their just rights are better protected.”
The emigration caused an increase in the price of labor. Meanwhile, thousands of dollars were
being lost by Delaware steamboat owners and businessmen because free people of color did not
enter the state for religious services as they had previously. In short, the laws were neither just
nor humane and should be repealed. Petitioners {42}: Bird, Harry B.; Downing, George; Hammutt,
Edmund M.; Latimer, John R.; Wise, John. Petitioners {61}: Crookes, Samuel; Johnson, P.
Sheama; Lawrence, Henry; Lear, John M.; Riddle, James. Petitioners {43}: Betts, Edward; Knight,
Dubre; Robinson, John T.; Robinson, William; Stephens, Geo. Petitioners {297}: Bradford,
Moses; Chandler, William; Huxley, Elihu; Lee, Alfred; Milligan, J. J.
0772. Kent County. Free people of color petition the government to repeal the 1851 acts
regulating slaves, free people of color, servants, and apprentices. The laws are “grievously
oppressive.” Especially burdensome was the stipulation prohibiting free people of color from
entering the state unless as a servant for a white man or as a seaman on a trading vessel. This
prevented family members from visiting one another if they lived across state lines. There were
also penalties for resident free persons of color who stayed out of the state more than sixty days.
“We endeavor to perform the duties of good, orderly citizens, and it bears hard on us not to be
allowed the privilege of seeking to do better elsewhere without losing our residence and being
subject to arrest, fine, imprisonment and sale, provided we return temporarily to visit our families
and friends.” They argue that, like their “white brethren,” they profess the Christian religion and
ask God for “salvation of our souls hereafter.” Petitioners {26}: Brinkley, Nathaniel; Brinkley,
William; Clark, John C.; Lewis, Peter; Miller, James.
0775. Kent County. Residents protest the 1851 laws concerning free people of color and slaves,
servants and apprentices. They argue that the laws are driving free people of color out of
Delaware and into New Jersey and Pennsylvania, “where their just rights are better protected.”
The emigration caused an increase in the price of labor. Meanwhile, thousands of dollars were
being lost by Delaware steamboat owners and businessmen because free people of color did not
enter the state for religious services as they had previously. In short, the laws were neither just
nor humane and should be repealed. Petitioners {76}: Dickson, William R.; Jackson, Caleb;
Lowber, Michael; McBride, Joseph; Wallace, Benjamin.
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Delaware
0001. Descriptive material.
1785.
0008. The Quakers request the abolition of slavery in Delaware and call for the equal treatment of
freed people of color in the state. Petitioners {203}: Backhouse, John, Jr.; Gilpin, Joseph; Gregg,
Samuel; Gregg, Thomas; Trump, John.
1786.
0014. Sussex County. The petitioners ask the legislature to more rigorously regulate the
movements of people of color. They argue that “under the name and character of Free Negroes
many idle and evil-disposed slaves throughout this County” traveled from one location to another,
“some with and some without passes or Certificates.” There were also many black “Stragglers
and Vagabonds From the Neighbouring Counties” and free people of color from other states that
“are likely to become Chargeable.” They ask for a law to prohibit black people from travelling from
one county to another without a written or printed pass or certificate with the county seal “affixed
thereto.” The pass should include the bearer's name and place of abode. Petitioners {21}: Davis,
William, Jr.; Draper, Joseph; Smith, David; Townsend, Jacob; Watson, Joseph. Petitioners {39}:
Davis; Black, George; Davis, Nehemiah; Walton, Luke; Wattson, Bethuel.
1788.
0025. The Quakers request an end to the slave trade in Delaware on the grounds of Christian
and natural law. “We therefore earnestly request you will be pleased to make such provision as
may be effectual for suppressing the Slave Trade or the Equipment of Ships for that purpose
within this State, and also to make such supplementary additions and amendments to the late Act
of Assembly to put a Stop to the importation of Slaves.” Petitioners {73}: Bedford, Quinn;
Delaplain, James; Drinker, John; Gilpin, Vincent; Hendrickson, Isaac.
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0031. The Delaware Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery seeks enforcement of the law
prohibiting the slave trade. In addition, they ask that until slavery is abolished “measures be
adopted to restrain the punishment of Slaves, at the mere will and pleasure of their Master.”
Petitioners {8}: Brian, Thomas; Gregg, John; Johnson, Daniel; Kirk, Caleb; Walraven, Peter.
Petitioners {43}: Barrett, Charles; Buffington, Joseph; Jackson, Isaac; McKennon, William; Peirce,
Robert. Petitioners {43}: Byrnes, Caleb; Byrnes, Joshua; Maxwell, Solomon; Stapaler, Stephen;
Stroud, Joshua.
0042. Cecil County. Maryland resident Henry Ward Pearce was unaware of a Delaware law
designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves. Pearce owns land in Delaware and
had sent two male slaves to work the land. He asks for an exemption from the law.
0046. The Delaware Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery seeks enforcement of the law
prohibiting the slave trade. They also ask that until slavery is abolished “measures be adopted to
restrain the punishment of Slaves, at the mere will and pleasure of their Master.” Petitioners {58}:
Bayard, James A.; Gibbons, James; Keats, George; Seal, Caleb; Yarnall, John.
1790.
0050. Kent County. Owed a debt by a resident of Maryland and obliged to take three slaves as
payment—a man, a woman, and a girl—McKimmy Smack, a resident of Delaware, seeks
exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves.
0053. New Castle County. Sluyter Bouchell states that he was unaware of a Delaware law
“forbidding the bringing of slaves in the State under any circumstances.” The slaves that he
brought with him from Maryland—Abraham, Edward, William, and Rainy—petitioned for their
freedom. Bouchell asks the legislature to assist him in keeping the slaves.
1791.
0058. Warner Mifflin asks the legislature to end slavery on Christian and moral grounds, advising
the insertion of a “clause in the constitution declaring that no more slaves shall be born in this
state.” Mifflin also asks for enforcement of laws protecting slaves and free blacks from being
kidnapped and “carried off.” In some parts of the state the laws were “being trampled upon and
evaded."
0065. New Castle County. Petitioners seek the strengthening and enforcement of acts regulating
the transportation of slaves over state lines, the exportation of slaves to other parts of the South,
and the enslavement of free blacks. Petitioners {53}: Brynberg, Peter; Chandler, Thomas;
Robinson, Nicholas; Seal, Caleb; Warner, Joseph.
0069. New Castle County. James Hutchings seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves so that he may bring his slaves from Maryland
to work his land in Delaware.
0073. New Castle County. James Black seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove five slaves from
his land in Maryland to use on his land in Delaware.
0076. New Castle County. The petitioners seek the abolition of slavery. “Your petitioners
therefore pray that the General Assembly will take the premises into Consideration and in their
Wisdom pass a law for extending the Benefits of Freedom to the posterity of such Africans or
others who are now held in bondage in this state.” They want to free the posterity of the slaves
because slavery was “totally repugnant to the spirit of the American Revolution” and because it
was their duty as Christians to do so. Petitioners {14}: Appelton, Robert; Cummins, Daniel;
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Hopkins, Francis; Robinson, William. Petitioners {54}: Dawson, Benjamin; Dawson, Solomon;
Fisher, Fenwick; Lane, A. W.; Needham, E. Petitioners {59}: Baily, Joseph; Gilpin, Vincent;
Hemphill, William; Reynolds, Thomas; Way, Nicholas. Petitioners {31}: Henry, James; Morris,
James; Rasin, William; Severson, John.
1793.
0092. The petitioners, including Quakers, ask that laws prohibiting the “exportation of Slaves
under certain restrictions, and the illegal carrying off free Black or coloured people” be
strengthened and enforced. Petitioners {37}: Campbell, Robert P.; Frazer, John; Frazer, William;
Garnett, William; Mifflin, Warner.
0095. Kent County. John and Sarah Brown seek exemption from a Delaware law prohibiting the
importation and exportation of slaves and ask permission to bring their slave, Job, from Maryland
into Delaware.
0101. James Black seeks exemption from a Delaware law prohibiting the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring three “negroe children"—Bob, Jacob, and
Dinah—from his farm in Kent County, Maryland, to his property in New Castle County, Delaware,
to “employ them in his Family."
0105. Anna Adams seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation
and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring her slave, Monacha, who had been hired
out in Maryland, into Delaware.
1794.
0109. A convention of the Abolition Society, having met in Philadelphia on 1 January 1794,
petitions the Delaware legislature to abolish slavery and to expand the rights of the “African
Citizen.” Petitioners {2}: Bloomfield, Joseph; Cree, John M.
0114. Residents of New Castle County petition for stricter enforcement of the laws prohibiting the
enslavement of free people of color and for the gradual abolition of slavery. “We ask not of your
honorable body to put an end at once to slavery, but we desire that a method may be fallen upon
which shall make it gradually disappear.” Petitioners {57}: Comb, Eleazer; Creery, William;
Hendrickson, Isaac; Rodney, Cesar; Thomas, E.
0119. In 1780, Maryland resident Sarah Frisby hired five of her slaves—Ben, Cliff, Stephen,
Betty, and Kate—to Richard Lavin of Maryland. Frisby later moved to Delaware. She asks for an
exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves.
0123. Sussex County. William E. Hitch seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring five slaves—Will,
Rachel, Alice, Ben, and George—from Maryland into Delaware.
0126. Thomas Saulsbury seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring “two Negroe children a girl & a
boy,” that he inherited from a relative from Dorchester County, Maryland, into Kent County,
Delaware.
0129. New Castle County. Petitioners seek the strengthening and enforcement of laws prohibiting
the enslavement of free people of color and ask for a gradual end to slavery. “We ask not of your
honourable body to put an end at once to slavery, but we desire, that a method may be fallen
upon which shall make it gradually disappear.” Petitioners {33}: Canby, William; Holllingsworth,
Samuel; Newlin, Cyrus; Shipley, Joseph; Warner, Joseph.
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1796.
0134. Kent County. Ruben Anderson seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent
the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring four slaves—Daniel, Lear,
Minty, and Mingo—into Delaware from Maryland. The slaves were acquired when Anderson
married Ann Purnell of Worcester County, Maryland.
0137. New Castle County. In 1793, Charles Thomas moved from Maryland to Delaware. Thomas
seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of
slaves and asks permission to bring “one negro Man, named Sam, Two negro women, named
Fanny & Hannah, Three negro boys, named Jack, Reuben & Perry, and one negro girl named
Nanee” from Maryland into Delaware.
0140. Sussex County. David Richards seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent
the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring “a Negro Woman called
jenny & a Negro Boy called Levin” into Delaware from Maryland. Richards acquired the slaves
following the death of a relative.
0143. Sussex County. George Waller seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent
the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to carry two slaves—Phillis and
her son, Stephen—that he acquired by way of payment of debt from Maryland into Delaware.
1797.
0146. Kent County. Samuel Dredden seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent
the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring his slave, Levin, from
Maryland into Delaware. Dredden acquired the slave following the death of a relative.
0149. James Colliar inherited property that is partially in Delaware and partially in Maryland; “the
bildings and Improvements is on the part that lyes in Sussex” County, Delaware. He seeks
exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves
and asks permission for his “sundry” slaves to reside in Delaware and work the land on both
sides of the state line.
0152. Sussex County. George Waller seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent
the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring two slaves—Phillis and
her son, Stephen—that he acquired by way of payment of a debt from Maryland into Delaware.
0155. New Castle County. Cantwell Jones seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring a newly
purchased family of slaves from Maryland into Delaware. Jones was anxious to settle the six
slaves—Adam, Fran, and their four children, Susan, Rose, Sol, and Harry—"amongst their
relations who are also the property of your petitioner."
1799.
0158. Sussex County. William Slayton seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent
the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring his slaves, Harry, Esther,
Diana, and “an infant child of Said Esther, not yet named,” from Maryland into Delaware.
0161. Sussex County. Curtis Morris seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent
the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring Ibba, a slave given to his
daughter, from Maryland into Delaware.
1800.
0165. Sussex County. Roger Adams seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent
the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the slave Venus from
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Maryland into Delaware. Adams was fond of Venus and had given her to his daughter. He said he
had rescued the woman from “hands that might make an ungenerous trade of her."
0168. William B. Smith seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation
and exportation of slaves and asks permission to transfer three slaves from Maryland into
Delaware. The three were “children, viz.: Stephen aged about thirteen, Nancy about eleven, and
a boy about six, or seven years old.” The three were acquired following his sister's death.
0171. William Hughtett seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation
and exportation of slaves and asks permission to transfer four slaves from Maryland into
Delaware. Hughtett owned the four slaves—John, Peter, Thomas, and Dinah—for a number of
years.
0173. George and Rachel Wilson seek exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and ask that their slaves be permitted to pass between
Maryland and Delaware. The Wilsons state that they wish to reside in Maryland and work their
slaves in Delaware. The slaves—Jacob, Silva, Elias, Ben, Denis, and two others—belonged to
Rachel Wilson before the two were married.
1801.
0177. The three hundred and sixty-six petitioners demand the abolition of slavery in Delaware.
They argue that the state would benefit economically and morally from abolition. The end of
slavery in New York, they contend, brought improvements of every kind and a permanent rise in
the value of real property. Abolition would also end the “most detestable of all crimes, so common
among us, the crime of man-stealing.” Petitioners {366}: Eastburn, David; Evans, Eli; Evans,
Thomas; Kinsey, Nathaniel; Phillips, William D.
0183. The petitioners seek the gradual abolition of slavery on constitutional grounds. “We
approve the language held forth in the preamble to the constitution of this State that declares
That ‘Through divine goodness all men have by nature the rights of enjoying and defending life
and liberty.’” They request that the legislature pass a law for the gradual abolition of slavery.
Petitioners {80}: Brown, William; Elliot, John; Peirce, George; Rice, Washington; Seal, William.
Petitioners {5}: August, Joseph N.; Niles, Heg; Seal, Joshua; Sparkman, Samuel; Wilson, James.
1802.
0190. Sussex County. Jonathan Waller states that he resides in Delaware and owns lands and
mills in both Delaware and Maryland. Waller requests an exemption from a Delaware law
designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission “to work and
employ His Slaves on his farms and Mills in the State of Maryland."
0193. Sussex County. Maryland resident George Wilson Jr. asks for a law to permit him to take
his wife's slave out of Delaware into Maryland. Wilson married a widow and now must support her
children, having been appointed their guardian.
1803.
0197. Kent County. Walter Delaney resides in the state of Delaware. He contends that the recent
behavior of his two slaves, whose relatives mostly reside in Maryland, requires that he either sell
them or “use harsh and rigorous treatment towards them, for the purpose of preserving due order
and submission in his family.” Delaney states that he wishes to avoid such treatment “as it is the
most disagreeable of the two, and not so likely as the former to effect the desired object.” Thus he
seeks permission to “sell and dispose of the said Slaves to some citizen or citizens of the State of
Maryland, willing to buy them."
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0200. The petitioners seek laws leading to the gradual abolition of slavery and the strengthening
of laws protecting slaves and free people of color. Petitioners {14}: Coulter, Ian; Marshall, Aaron;
McIlvain, Mills; Row, Frederick; Shankland, Rhoad. Petitioners {66}: Cochran, James;
Lockerman, Mathew; Starr, Isaac; Whitelock, George; Woolston, Jeremiah.
1805.
0208. New Castle County. Thomas Forman owns land in both Maryland and Delaware. He asks
for permission to bring his slaves from Maryland into Delaware.
1807.
0212. Thomas Carey requests compensation for the expenses he incurred capturing and
imprisoning George Parker, a black man who was charged with the rape of Hannah Bramble.
Carey states that he searched in Philadelphia and throughout Pennsylvania and Delaware for the
accused and traded a horse worth $60 for information about Parker’s exact hiding place. He
captured Parker near Frederica, Delaware, in Kent County and lodged him in the local jail.
0215. James Morris of Maryland instructed in his will that his slaves be freed when they reached
the age of thirty. His son, William Morris, in the meantime moved to Delaware with one of the
slaves. The slave died. William Morris seeks permission to return to Maryland for the purpose of
obtaining another of the slaves mentioned in the will.
0218. Kent County. The petitioners urge the legislature to approve the plea of Thomas Carey for
compensation for the capture of George Parker, a black man charged with the rape of Hannah
Bramble. Petitioners {16}: Furbee, Jacob; Lockley, John; Pierce, Abraham; Ridgely, Abraham;
Ridgely, Henry M.
0221. The petitioners call for the gradual abolition of slavery and the strengthening of laws for the
protection of slaves and free people of color. Petitioners {19}: Eastburn, David; Evans, Eli; Evans,
Thomas; Kinsey, Nathaniel; Phillips, William.
0224. Kent County. Petitioners seek the gradual emancipation of Delaware slaves, asking that a
law be passed “fixing a period after which all children born of slave shall be free at the age of 21,
28, or whatever age you, in your wisdom may deem best.” Petitioners {106}: Chambers, Samuel;
Cullen, Jesse; Norris, John; Sullivan, James; Swiggett, Henry.
0228. New Castle County. The petitioners call for the gradual abolition of slavery and the
strengthening of laws for the protection of slaves and free people of color. “We ask not of your
honourable body to put an end at once to slavery, but we desire, that a method may be fallen
upon which shall make it gradually disappear.” Petitioners {33}: Hutton, John; Moody, M.; Nash,
John; Penington, H. B.; Wilson, David.
1808.
0233. John Carter of Caroline County, Maryland, requests exemption from the Delaware law
prohibiting the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring his wife's
slaves from Delaware into Maryland.
1809.
0236. Kent County. Zachariah Pritchett petitions for the freedom of George, a free man of color
whom Pritchett contends was illegally arrested by the constable of the county. Pritchett also asks
for the dismissal of Justice of the Peace Major Anderson. Anderson's son, Ezekiel Anderson,
claimed that George was his runaway slave. Major Anderson issued a warrant for George's
arrest. Zachariah Pritchett claims that George is a free person of color whose family Pritchett
hired. Pritchett states that Major Anderson should be removed from office on the grounds that he
had conducted himself in a “most arbitrary” and oppressive manner and that he had knowingly
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subverted law and justice. Moreover, “he is grossly ignorant of his office and of the powers vested
in him by the law."
1810.
0259. Kent County. A group of slave owners complain that slaves filing freedom petitions cost
masters money. The owners not only lost the labor of their bondsman or bondswoman but also
were forced to pay court expenses. They seek an amendment to the law to require “that in all
cases where petitions for freedom are filed in vacation, they shall be subscribed on behalf of the
Petitioner by some substantial person residing in the State.” Petitioners {13}: Furbee, Jacob;
Hamm, Charles; Lockwood, William K.; McDowell, Wesley; Wootten, J. B.
0263. Sussex County. Delaware resident James Owens requests permission to bring his slave,
Jack, from Maryland to Delaware. Owens acquired Jack upon his marriage to Mary Woolford of
Maryland.
0266. Sussex County. John Handy of Delaware married Rebecca Nicols of Maryland and was
presented with the gift of “the following Negroes, Rachel and her female child age ten months,
and Priscilla, aged eight or ten.” Handy seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove Rachel, her
baby, and Priscilla from Maryland into Delaware.
1811.
0269. William Pearce, a resident of Kent County in Maryland, owns woodlands in New Castle
County, Delaware. He seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation
and exportation of slaves. He asks permission for his slaves to cut firewood, timber, and rails in
Delaware and transport the wood into Maryland.
0273. Kent County. Francis Hall married Sarah Tilghman of Maryland and acquired slaves in
Delaware. Hall seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove “said Negro Slaves, or a part of them” from
Delaware to Maryland. Petitioners {3}: Hall, Francis C.; Tilghman, Henry; Tilghman, Edward, 3rd.
1812.
0276. Quakers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the eastern part of Maryland request
that special attention be given to laws restricting the freedom of free people of color. The laws are
“not only partial in their nature, but in their practical operation, calculated to produce in many
instances grievous suffering; and in some cases too, where the Individuals whom they affect,
have not been charged with the commission of any crime.” Petitioner: Evans, Jon.
1813.
0283. Parran Taylor moved from Kent County, Delaware, to Queen Anne County, Maryland. At
the time, his slave, Thomas, was hired out to John Niden of Kent County. Taylor seeks exemption
from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks
permission to remove Thomas into Maryland.
0286. Queen Anne County, Maryland. Following the death of his father-in-law, William Wingate
acquired the seventeen-year-old slave Rebecca. Wingate seeks exemption from a Delaware law
designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove
Rebecca from Delaware into Maryland.
1814.
0289. Sussex County. William Waples states that he purchased a slave in Maryland and inherited
several others following the death of a relative in Virginia. Waples seeks exemption from a
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Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission
to remove his slaves from Maryland and Virginia into Delaware.
0292. Maryland resident Thomas Forman states that he owns land in Maryland and Delaware. He
seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of
slaves and asks permission for his slaves to travel across the state line in order to work both
tracts of land.
0295. Isaac Cannon of Sussex County married the daughter of Elijah Fookis, a resident of
Worcester County in Maryland. Fookis expressed his wish to give his daughter “a Negro Boy by
the Name of Sampson.” Cannon seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove Sampson from Maryland
into Delaware.
0298. Gabriel Fountain states that he moved from Carolina County, Maryland, to Sussex County
in Delaware. He seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove his slave, Rachel, from Maryland to
Delaware. Rachel was a present from his grandfather about eight years before.
0301. Maria Townsend moved from Worcester County, Maryland, to Sussex County in Delaware.
She seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of
slaves and asks permission to remove a slave named Belinda and the slave's child from
Maryland into Delaware.
0304. Richard Lawrence states that he moved from Sussex County in Delaware to Baltimore,
Maryland, in 1809. When Lawrence left Delaware his slave, Joshua, was hired out and so could
not be brought to Maryland. Joshua's term of hire has expired, Lawrence states, and he now
seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of
slaves and asks permission to remove the slave from Delaware to Maryland.
1815.
0307. The African School Society asks the state to pass an act for the society's incorporation.
The petitioners state that the society had privately educated “the descendants of Africans” for
several years. The society received voluntary contributions and had established a seminary. The
society's purpose was to lessen the “deplorable ignorance, which characterises So great a
portion of their colour, and disqualifies them from the more useful employments of life."
Petitioners {29}: Brian, James; Ferris, Liba; Lewis, Evan; Reynolds, John; Starr, Isaac.
0312. Samuel Wright of Queen Anne's County, Maryland, owns land in Maryland and Delaware.
He seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of
slaves and asks permission to allow his slaves to travel between the two states in order to work
both tracts of land.
0315. Sussex County. In his will, John Dawson of Carolina County, Maryland, bequeathed two
slaves to his wife and specified that after her death the slaves would be divided between their two
daughters, Polly and Sally. When Dawson's wife died, only the slave Daniel was still living. For a
time Daniel was hired out; but then Dirickson purchased the slave. He seeks exemption from a
Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves. He asks permission
to remove Daniel from Maryland into Delaware.
0319. Jenifer Taylor of Caroline County, Maryland, states that she recently became “seized and
possessed” of Robert, “a negro lad” about nineteen or twenty years old. Taylor seeks exemption
from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks
permission to remove Robert from Delaware into Maryland.
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0322. In 1814, in “an Act to Authorize Thomas Marsh Forman to bring slaves into this State from
Maryland,” Forman was given permission to bring several slaves into Delaware provided he
register their names and ages at the Recording Office. Due to a mail problem, he was unable to
comply with these terms and “therefore prays the General Assembly to grant him leave to bring in
a bill to extend the time of recording the names and ages of said negroes."
0325. New Castle County. A group of sixty-seven women in Wilmington declare their opposition
to slavery. According to the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Bible,
slavery should be abolished. Petitioners {67}: Collyer, A. E.; Pusey, Edith; Pusey, Rachel; Webb,
Eliza; Webb, Mary.
0328. The residents in the village of Cantwells Bridge, New Castle County, seek a justice of the
peace “to prevent the disorderly conduct of people of colour and others who are in the habit of
disturbing the peace.” They ask for a bill to authorize the governor to establish “a commission for
a justice of the Peace.” Petitioners {35}: Corbit, William; Metts, John; Starr, Thomas; Wilson,
David; Wilson, D. W., Jr.
0332. Worcester County, Maryland. William Hudson of Maryland states that he purchased a slave
named Sam from George Aydelott of Delaware. Hudson seeks exemption from a Delaware law
designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove
Sam from Delaware into Maryland. Hudson made the purchase “not with a view to Sell or dispose
of the Said Slave."
1816.
0335. Kent County. A group of freemen protest the passage of an 1811 act permitting free people
of color convicted of theft to be “disposed of by the sheriff of the County as a servant” for a term
of two to seven years. This could easily result in free persons of color being sold to slave traders
or their agents and sent to the deep South, the petitioners argue. It would be impossible for free
blacks thus sold, the petitioners assert, “to procure or obtain any evidence that will free them.”
They would remain slaves for life and their children would be subject to “the most Cruel Slavery
for Many Generations.” This was cruel and unusual punishment. They ask for a repeal of the law.
Petitioners {7}: Catlin, Robert; Cullen, Gideon; Davenport, Joseph; Dickson, Sam; Smithers,
Nathaniel.
0339. The petitioners ask that “an Act Respecting free Negroes and free Mulattoes” be repealed.
The act was incompatible with the spirit of the Constitution. The law consigns free people of color
to “cruel servitude” under hard, greedy task masters “whose tenderest feelings towards them are
but cruelty,” the petitioners argue, and permits whites to carry on a “legalised traffick in human
beings.” Petitioners {26}: Dolly, William; Edmondson, Samuel; Hunn, Erik; Hunn, Jonathan;
Mifflin, Dan. Petitioners {23}: Couper, James, Jr.; Manlove, John; Mifflin, Warner; Paynter,
Samuel, Jr.; Van Dyke, Abraham.
0347. The petitioners seek the repeal of an 1811 law titled “An Act to prohibit the emigration of
free negroes or free mulattoes into this State.” The law, the petitioners argue, is “not only unjust,
oppressive and rigorous, but likewise highly impolitic.” The law subjects a “portion of the
Community equally entitled by nature and our free Constitution to the rights and privileges of their
Fellow Citizens…to grievous penalties and imprisonment, without the perpetration of any Crime,
or the breach of any moral Law.” Petitioners {60}: Canby, Samuel; Ferris, Benjamin; Hilles, Eli;
Lewis, Evan; Poole, William.
0353. Residents of Sussex County seek a “repeal of certain laws preventing them from procuring”
labor to drain large districts of land that are covered with water. Petitioners {43}: Messick,
George; Powell, Job; Powell, Joshua; Powell, William; West, Elias.
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0359. Kent County. Joseph Parsons states that he inherited three slaves from his mother, a
resident of Maryland. He set two of the slaves free and wishes to keep the third, a boy about ten
years of age, as a slave. Parsons seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the slave from Maryland into
Delaware.
0362. Sussex County. Sally Ellegood states that she inherited from her father, a resident of
Worcester County, Maryland, a slave named Rachel. Through marriage, William Ellegood
became the owner of Rachel. The Ellegoods now seek an exemption from a Delaware law
designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves. They ask permission to bring
Rachel from Maryland into Delaware.
0365. Sussex County. Delaware resident Ralph Robinson and his son, Lake, own land in
Maryland and Delaware. They seek exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and ask permission for several slaves to “pass and repass”
from a farm in Delaware to a farm in Maryland.
0369. Sussex County. William Nicols states he moved from Maryland to Delaware. He seeks
exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves
and asks permission to bring three slaves, inherited following the death of his father, from
Maryland to Delaware.
0372. The Orphans Court of Sussex County appointed Sally Adams guardian for Andrew Adams,
a minor and the son of John Adams, who died in Sussex County. Andrew inherited property in
Somerset County, Maryland, including the slave Henny and her three children. The slaves are
“under the care of” Andrew Adams, senior, of Somerset County. Sally Adams seeks exemption
from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks
permission to bring Henny and her three children from Maryland into Delaware.
0375. Thomas Handy moved from Maryland to Delaware, leaving behind several slaves whom he
had hired out. He seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring two of the slaves, Violet and Peter, from
Maryland into Delaware.
0378. The petitioners express concern about the increasing number of kidnappings of free people
of color who are being sold into slavery. They ask that the existing laws be amended to
incorporate a harsh penalty for those engaging in “this iniquitous traffic” of free people. In
Maryland, the petitioners report, the grand jury of Baltimore County also seeks a law to halt the
traffic. Petitioners {5}: Davis, Jesse; Hambly, Rick; Huston, William; Martin, William; Weise, John.
1817.
0382. The petitioners express concern about the increasing number of kidnappings of free people
of color who are being sold into slavery. They ask that the existing laws be amended to
incorporate a harsh penalty for those engaging in “this iniquitous traffic” of free people. In
Maryland, the petitioners report, the grand jury of Baltimore County also seeks a law to halt the
traffic. Petitioners {9}: Allen, Presley; Marry, John W.; Metz, George W.; Therlin, James; Yeats,
James.
0391. Ralph Robinson of Sussex County owns a plantation in Maryland. He seeks exemption
from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks
permission for seven slaves to pass and repass across the state line in order to work the land in
Maryland.
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0394. Andrew Gray of New Castle County inherited the slave Samuel from a resident of
Maryland. He seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring Samuel from Maryland into Delaware.
0397. William Vaughan of Sussex County married Garner Giles, a resident of Maryland. Through
this marriage, Vaughan became owner of the slave Phoebe and her four children. He seeks
exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves
and asks permission to bring the slaves from Maryland into Delaware. The slaves include Phoebe
and her four children: Jack, Josiah, Arthur, and one other.
0400. Citizens of Delaware express concern about the increasing number of kidnappings of free
people of color who are then sold into slavery. They ask that the legislature enact laws “whose
penalty shall exceed the hope of advantage” from this “iniquitous traffic.” In Maryland, the
petitioners note, the grand jury of Baltimore County seeks a law to halt the traffic in that state.
Petitioners {105}: Rooney, Caleb; Thompson, Joseph H.; West, Jacob; West, John M.; Wilson,
James. Petitioners {24}: Dolly, William; Godwin, H. M.; Hall, William; Hayes, A. L.; Lockwood,
William K. Petitioners {91}: Bennett, Joseph; Bishop, William; Dein, William; Godwin, Daniel;
Little, Henry. Petitioners {73}: Combs, Lawrence M.; Harrington, Isaac; Jefferson, Ephraim;
Spruance, P.; Wood, Benjamin. Petitioners {17}: Babb, Homas; Beeson, Thomas; Derickson,
Jacob; Pyle, Joseph; Talley, Elihu, Jr. Petitioners {36}: Adkins, L.; Collins, H.; Collins, J. W.;
Shockley, Elias; Starr, James. Petitioners {26}: Blackiston, Benjamin; Blackiston, Ebenezer;
McDowell, James; Needham, E.; Wilson, Robert. Petitioners {40}: Baker, Elias; Baker, George;
Blackson, Aaron; Jeffries, James; Prettyman, Burton. Petitioners {2}: Hunn, Jonathan; Mifflin,
Warner. Petitioners {6}: Benton, Joshua; Dingle, Edward, Jr.; Dunning, William; Robinson,
Thomas; Waples, John S. Petitioners {11}: Hart, James; Martin, Martin; Parker, Andrew; Wallis,
Joshua; Webster, Dickinson. Petitioners {17}: Harrington, Richard; Jester, Stanford; Long,
Benjamin; North, Jeremiah; Price, Samuel. Petitioners {4}: Brook, Christopher; Burton, John;
Davis, Outlen; Ryland, Alrich.
1818.
0440. Noting the many acts “of pilfering & Stealing committed by the people of Colour both bound
and free,” residents of Dagsborough and Baltimore Hundreds, Sussex County, request the
establishment of a patrol. The petitioners claim that black people steal poultry, sheep, corn, and
smoked meat.
0442. Citizens of Delaware express concern about the increasing number of kidnappings of free
people of color who are then sold into slavery. They ask that the legislature enact laws “whose
penalty shall exceed the hope of advantage” from this “iniquitous traffic.” In Maryland, the
petitioners note, the grand jury of Baltimore County seeks a law to halt the traffic in that state.
Petitioners {349}: Collins, James; Gilpin, Edward; Pepper, Henry J.; Sellars, John; Taylor,
Samuel.
0450. New Castle County. In 1816, Thomas Handy was granted permission by the Delaware
legislature to transport the slave Violet, owned by Hugh Henry, from Maryland into Delaware.
Handy had hired his slave, Chloe, to Henry, a Maryland resident, in return for the use of Violet.
Before Handy moved to Delaware with Violet, Henry died, nullifying the arrangement. Handy now
seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of
slaves and asks permission to bring Chloe and her children into Delaware instead of Violet.
0456. Henry Casson of Talbot County in Maryland married Elizabeth Baynard of Kent County,
Delaware. Elizabeth Baynard inherited from her father two slaves, a mother and daughter.
Casson seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the slaves from Delaware into Maryland.
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0459. Elizabeth Johns seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation
and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring her slave, George, from Maryland into
Delaware.
0462. The Sussex County sheriff seeks reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses of $124 for the
apprehension of Eli Harris and Alexander Clarkson, two free men of color who escaped from jail.
The two were captured, indicted, tried, convicted, and, pursuant to act of the General Assembly,
sold for a term of years. Eli Harris sold for $301; Alexander Clarkson, for $315.50.
0466. Samuel Kinney of Sussex County married Barshaba Bevans of Worcester County,
Maryland, who had inherited seven slaves. By marriage Kinney became the rightful owner of the
slaves. He seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the said slaves from Maryland into Delaware.
0469. Caleb Davis of Caroline County, Maryland, states that he bought the slave Rachel from
Esther Cannon of Sussex County, Delaware. Davis seeks exemption from a Delaware law
designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove
Rachel from Delaware into Maryland.
0473. Citizens of Delaware express concern about the increasing number of kidnappings of free
people of color who are then sold into slavery. They ask that the legislature enact laws “whose
penalty shall exceed the hope of advantage” from this “iniquitous traffic.” In Maryland, the
petitioners note, the grand jury of Baltimore County seeks a law to halt the traffic in that state.
Petitioners {30}: Byrnes, Daniel; Leonard, Frederick; Robinson, Joseph; Shipley, Samuel; Torbert,
John. Petitioners {6}: Canby, James; Canby, Samuel; Poole, William; Shipley, Joseph; Tatem,
Charles. Petitioners {63}: Armstrong, Archibald; Armstrong, Nathaniel; Sharpless, Caleb; Wilson,
James; Wilson, Stephen. Petitioners {34}: Crosley, Robert; Hollingsworth, Joel; Hollingsworth,
Joseph; Wilson, Ezekiel; Woodward, Samuel. Petitioners {44}: Lister, James; Momson, George;
Tyson, Isaac; Whiteley, Alexander; Whiteley, H. Z. Petitioners {61}: Eybert, Abraham; Heisler,
Daniel; McCombes, George; Miller, Thomas; Sharpley, John. Petitioners {41}: Cranston, Simon;
Ferris, John; Ferris, William; Garretson, Gideon; Thompson, Eli. Petitioners {25}: Delany, P. B.;
Greenwood, James; Lockwood, Richard; McClary, Richard; Scott, Miche. Petitioners {74}:
Hewes, Edward; Lane, A. M.; Stuart, Joseph; Witherspoon, Thomas; Worrell, Edward. Petitioners
{55}: Bowers, William; Newcomb, James; Smyth, John; Spare, James; Thomas, Samuel.
0504. Roger Wright moved from Maryland into Delaware. He seeks exemption from a Delaware
law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring
his four slaves from Maryland into Delaware.
0510. John Smith of Delaware married Ann Hudson of Worcester County, Maryland. Before their
marriage, the wife was bequeathed nine slaves, who became the property of the husband. At the
time of their marriage the slaves were on a farm in Maryland. Smith seeks exemption from a
Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission
to bring the slaves from Maryland into Delaware. Smith states that the slaves are needed to
cultivate his land and that he fears that if he brings the slaves into Delaware without a legislative
act they might be considered entitled to their freedom.
0514. James Denny of Kent County, Delaware, states that he received two slaves as a present
from his father-in-law, John Marshall of Worcester County, Maryland. Denny seeks exemption
from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks
permission to bring the said slaves from Delaware into Maryland.
0518. Noting the many acts “of pilfering & Stealing committed by the people of Colour both bound
and free,” residents of Dagsborough and Baltimore Hundreds, Sussex County, request the
establishment of a patrol. The petitioners claim that black people steal poultry, sheep, corn, and
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smoked meat. Petitioners {40}: Benson, Major; Lockwood, Benjamin; Thomas, Uriah; Tingle,
Nathaniel; West, Kendle. Petitioners {41}: Bennett, James; Hickman, Caleb; Hickman, John;
Long, Jeremiah; Wood, William. Petitioners {105}: Aydelott, Zadock; Holland, Elihu; Holland,
William; Townsend, Zadock; Waples, John.
0534. New Castle County. Mary Reading purchased three slaves at a sale in Cecil County,
Maryland. Reading seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation
and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the slaves from Maryland into Delaware.
1819.
0537. A group of Delaware citizens seek the return of Benjamin Benson, a free man of color who
was taken to Guilford County, North Carolina, and sold. “By the laudable assistance of a friend to
Humanity in that State we have his case in a fair way to recover his freedom,” they state. “But it
appears to be absolutely necessary to effect an object so desirable that his person should be
Identified in a court of Justice qualified to hear said case.” They ask the governor to appoint a
person from Delaware who is acquainted with Benson to go to North Carolina and identify him as
a free man. Petitioners {26}: Blackiston, Ebenezer; Carse, James M.; Dunning, John; Patterson,
Robert; Shannon, A. P.
0540. New Castle County. James Lackey seeks relief from fines assessed after he and two other
men were convicted of assault and battery with intent to kidnap. The charges were brought by
Preston Moore, a free man of color. Lackey argues that the fines are excessive, that Moore's
character is questionable, and that the governor had already remitted the sentence of standing in
the pillory. Before the altercation Moore had been Lackey's indentured servant.
0545. Richard Lawrence moved to Baltimore, Maryland, from Delaware, but left behind the slave
Toby, who was “bound some time previous for a term of years to learn the art or Trade of a
Forgeman.” When his term ended Toby married another slave without his master's consent.
Lawrence permitted Toby to remain with his wife in Delaware. Toby's wife, however, eventually
was sold out of the state. Lawrence now seeks exemption from a Delaware law prohibiting the
transportation of slaves over state lines and asks permission to bring Toby from Delaware into
Maryland.
0549. Jesse Wright of Dorchester County, Maryland, married the daughter of the late W. Dawson
of Sussex County, Delaware. The wife inherited a slave named Washington. The husband seeks
exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves
and asks permission to remove Washington from Delaware into Maryland.
0554. Sussex County. In 1815, John Gibbons of Delaware married the daughter of Major Francis
Turpin of Dorchester County, Maryland. Turpin gave his daughter a female house servant and the
slave's child. Gibbons seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation
and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the said slaves from Maryland into
Delaware. He had never either directly or indirectly been involved in the domestic slave trade, “a
traffic to your Petitioner odious and abominable."
0557. Maryland resident Robert Wright owns considerable land in Delaware. He seeks exemption
from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks
permission to bring slaves from Maryland into Delaware to clear and cultivate his land.
Possessing a patent from the state of Delaware, he feared that if his land were not cleared and
cultivated he might lose his holdings to foreigners. He was against that in principle, he states. In
addition, the Constitution of the United States, Article Four, said that “The Citizens of each State
Shall be entitled to all privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the Several States.” He should
therefore be able to use his Maryland slaves in Delaware.
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1820.
0562. Kent County. A group of Delaware residents view the proposed expansion of slavery into
Missouri and the territory of Arkansas “with anxious foreboding.” The petitioners thus urge the
legislature to instruct the state's senators and representatives “to give their voice and influence to
restrict slavery in the territory of Arkansas, and proposed new State of Missouri.” The petitioners
cite the federal law of 1787 prohibiting slavery from “all territory then appertaining to the United
States” and the Delaware declaration of rights of 1776. Furthermore, they argue, the Constitution
authorizes the Congress to administer the territories and to review applications for statehood and
approve or reject them as it may deem “most conducive to the interests of the Union.” Finally, the
Constitution outlawed the importation of slaves after 1808. Thus, they argue, the Constitution
permits Congress, which has proved itself willing, to regulate slavery in the territories. Petitioners
{15}: Godwin, H. M.; Killingsworth, W.; Kimmy, Joseph; Lewis, Robert; Wilkeson, William.
0566. New Castle County. Brought as a slave from the island of “St. Domingo” in 1793, Andrew
Noel settled with his master in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1799 his master freed him. In 1816, he
purchased a house and lot for his family. Noel seeks a law naturalizing him as a citizen of the
United States so that he may bequeath his property to his wife and children.
0570. New Castle County. Through marriage Elijah Moore acquired property in Maryland,
including “a Negro Boy” by the name of David. Moore seeks exemption from a Delaware law
designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring David
into Delaware from Maryland.
0573. Following the death of his father-in-law, Arthur Willis of Delaware inherited land in
Dorchester County, Maryland. He seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove his three slaves—"A Negro
Man Named Dorsey, A Negro Woman Named Levisa & a Negro Boy Named Bayard"—from
Delaware and retain them on his lands in Maryland.
0576. Sussex County. Nathaniel Ross owns land in both Maryland and Delaware. His Maryland
land is two miles from the state line with Delaware along the Nauticoke River. The timber in this
area is ready to be harvested and carried to the ports of Baltimore, Washington, and Alexandria,
he states. He seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to work his slaves in Maryland and return them to
Delaware.
0579. Noah Ross of Caroline County, Maryland, inherited four slaves “in right of his wife,” the
daughter of Hester Cannon, who died in Sussex County, Delaware. Ross seeks exemption from a
Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission
to remove the slaves from Delaware into Maryland.
0584. Delaware resident Robert Boyce owns lands in Sussex County, Delaware, and mills and
lands in Caroline County, Maryland. He seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission for his slaves to work in
both states.
0588. Kent County. A group of Delaware residents view the proposed expansion of slavery into
Missouri and the territory of Arkansas “with anxious foreboding.” The petitioners thus urge the
legislature to instruct the state's senators and representatives “to give their voice and influence to
restrict slavery in the territory of Arkansas, and proposed new State of Missouri.” The petitioners
cite the federal law of 1787 prohibiting slavery from “all territory then appertaining to the United
States” and the Delaware declaration of rights of 1776. Furthermore, they argue, the Constitution
authorizes the Congress to administer the territories and to review applications for statehood and
approve or reject them as it may deem “most conducive to the interests of the Union.” Finally, the
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Constitution outlawed the importation of slaves after 1808. Thus, they argue, the Constitution
permits Congress, which has proved itself willing, to regulate slavery in the territories.
1821.
0597. James Brindley of New Castle County, Delaware, acquired several slaves from the estate
of Samuel C. Hall of Cecil County, Maryland, for the payment of debt. Brindley does not want to
sell the slaves to “those who have made it their trade and occupation to buy and sell persons of
colour.” It would “violate his feelings and principles.” The slaves include Jim, Hannah, and
Hannah’s children: Betty, Sam, Ann, and an infant. Brindley seeks exemption from a Delaware
law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring
the said slaves from Maryland into Delaware.
0602. Nathaniel Ross of Sussex County purchased timber land in Dorchester County, Maryland.
He has a number of slaves and wishes to work them on his Maryland land harvesting the timber.
He cannot do so because of the “existing Laws which would in such case entitle them to their
Freedom.” He seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission for slaves to work on the land in Maryland.
0605. Eleanor Waller of Sussex County bequeathed seven slaves to James, Richard, and
George Waller, residents of Somerset County, Maryland. The beneficiaries seek exemption from
a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and ask permission
to remove the said slaves from Delaware into Maryland.
0608. As payment for a debt, John Thompson of New Castle County, Delaware, acquired a slave
named Cyrus, a house servant. Thompson seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring Cyrus from
Maryland into Delaware.
0611. James Smith moved from Kent County, Delaware, to Kent County, Maryland. He seeks
exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves
and asks permission to bring three slaves, William, Abraham, and Susan, from Delaware to
Maryland.
0614. Kent County. Daniel Satterfield seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent
the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to move the slave James from
Maryland to Delaware.
0617. Sussex County. Four years previously, Joshua Freeny of Worcester County, Maryland,
gave his daughter the slave Eliza. Frederick Hasting, husband of Mary Freeny Hasting, seeks
exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves
and asks permission to bring his wife's slave from Maryland into Delaware.
0620. Isaac Davis states that he owns two slaves who will remain in bondage until they reach the
age of thirty. Davis seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation
and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the slaves from Kent County to his farm in
Cecil County, Maryland.
0623. Moses Meredith seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation
and exportation of slaves so he can bring a slave woman into Delaware.
0626. Kent County. John Cooper seeks permission to bring the slave Aaron into Delaware from
Maryland. Aaron, the petitioner states, is the son of Phebe, who was Cooper's slave when Aaron
was born but has since been manumitted.
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1822.
0629. Caroline County, Maryland. John Reed of Kent County, Delaware, bequeathed to his sons,
George and William, a slave named Ruben who was to be freed at age twenty-eight. George and
William, residents of Maryland, seek exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and ask permission to bring Ruben from Delaware into
Maryland.
0632. Philip Reybold of New Castle County, Delaware, owns a slave woman and her child. The
woman's husband and father of the child—a slave named Dick—belongs to a resident of Cecil
County, Maryland. Reybold states that he wishes to purchase Dick to unite the family. He seeks
exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves
and asks permission to bring Dick from Maryland into Delaware.
0635. Sussex County. Joseph King of Kent County, Delaware, acquired several slaves in
Maryland through his marriage to Ann Maria Watson of Somerset County. One of the slaves, a
black woman named Leah, was his wife's house servant. He seeks exemption from a Delaware
law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring
Leah into Delaware.
0639. New Castle County. Joseph Chamberlain seeks exemption from a Delaware law to prevent
the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring a six-year-old slave
named Amelia from Maryland into Delaware “as a house servant, & not for sale."
0642. The petitioner, Veasey, states that since 1798 he has owned a plantation and tracts of land
lying partly in New Castle County, Delaware, and partly in Cecil County, Maryland. Until recently
this land was rented out to people in Delaware. Veasey states that he now wishes to take
possession of the plantation “with a view of Stocking It & of setting thereon his Son.” He claims
that he does not want to hire slaves or free people of color to work the land and thus seeks
exemption from a Delaware law to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks
permission to transport his slaves into Delaware to work the land.
0646. Isaac Dale moved to Delaware from Maryland. He seeks exemption from a Delaware law to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to move a slave woman
and her three children into Delaware.
0650. Sussex County. James Miller seeks exemption from a Delaware law to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to transport a slave woman and her
child to Worcester County, Maryland. Miller intended to give the slaves—Sarah and her daughter
Rhoda—to Ellinor Ann Riley and Rachel Riley (also spelled Righley). A statement by George
Howard, a member of the legislature, states that Miller acquired the slaves through his marriage
to the sister of James Riley, father of Ellinor Ann and Rachel Riley. Howard noted that “the wife of
James Miller on her deathbed requested him to give those Negroes to her brothers and children,
& that Miller promised so to do—."
0653. Hessy Mitchell of Worcester County, Maryland, desires to move to Delaware to assist her
widowed daughter on her farm. Mitchell seeks exemption from a Delaware law to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring two slaves from Maryland into
Delaware.
0658. New Castle County. John Thompson acquired the slave Cyrus as payment for a debt. He
seeks exemption from a Delaware law to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and
asks permission to bring Cyrus from Maryland into Delaware for the purpose of maintaining him
as a house servant. Thompson states that he will free Cyrus when the slave reaches age thirty.
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0661. Kent County. Daniel Satterfield married Mary Turner of Talbot County, Maryland. Turner
owned a young slave named Jim. Satterfield seeks exemption from a Delaware law to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring Jim from Maryland into
Delaware. Satterfield states that he could have disposed of Jim in Maryland at a profit but did not
wish to do so.
0664. Citizens of Delaware seek the gradual abolition of slavery in the state. They cite moral,
political, social, and economic reasons. In the past thirty years, the petitioners state, the slave
population in the state had declined from one-seventh to less than one-thirtieth of the population.
Hence, “were we to descend even to the sordid calculation of loss and gain, the sacrifice required
by a gradual abolition, would be as nothing.” They ask the legislature to designate a day “after
which all coloured children born in our State shall be free.” Petitioners {6}: Benneson, Thomas;
Chamberlain, Joseph; Hindman, F.; Tyson, Isaac; Wattson, Benjamin. Petitioners {28}: Brinkle,
W. D.; Fleming, Joseph; King, Seth; Needham, E.; White, Charles. Petitioners {12}: Rodney,
John; Stanley, Samuel G.; West, B. A.; West, Jacob; West, John M. Petitioners {49}: Carnes,
John; Heald, Joseph; Hollingsworth, Jesse; Ween, Joseph; Wilson, Ezekiel. Petitioners {40}:
Adams, Thomas; Conwell, William, Sr.; Gray, Joseph; Little, Henry; Register, John. Petitioners
{40}: Ferris, Benjamin; Hilles, Eli; Hilles, Samuel; Lewis, Evan; Springer, B. H. Petitioners {11}:
Baldwin, William; Ball, James; Johnson, Joshua; Lindsey, Joseph; Robinson, John. Petitioners
{14}: Hand, Cansey; Layton, Lowder; Peter, T. C.; Ratcliff, Samuel; West, David. Petitioners {4}:
Canby, James; Ferris, John; Rodney, A.; Shalleross, John. Petitioners {26}: Dolly, Isaac; Jenkins,
H.; Kinney, Joseph; Lewis, David D.; Rowland, Joseph G. Petitioners {15}: Bacon, Henry; Bett,
Joseph; Hopkins, John; Littleton, Edmon; Wallis, J. Petitioners {12}: Baldwin, Thomas; Bradley,
Nesbitt; Kerns, Benjamin; Philips, Evan; Pusey, Jacob. Petitioners {32}: Adams, Peter; Jenkins,
George W.; Price, Samuel; Register, Elijah; Rusin, Philip.
0708. William West requests permission to bring a slave into Sussex County, Delaware, from
Worcester County, Maryland. West recently married Polly Gordy of Maryland. Her father, Nathan
Gordy, gave to them “a Negro girl by the name of Kesiah and your petitioner wishes to take the
said Negro home for his own use."
1823.
0711. The petitioners ask the legislature to pass an act incorporating the African Benevolent
Association. The association's goal, the petitioners state, is to provide “mutual relief and
improvement of each other” and to “purchase, receive, take and hold any lands, tenements, rents,
goods and chattels, which may be given, granted, devised or conveyed to them for the purpose
aforesaid and to sell, rent and dispose of the same in such manner as to them shall seem
beneficial.” Petitioners {25}: Burton, Joseph; Duncan, Peter; James, Benjamin; Jones, Daniel;
Thomas, William.
0715. Free man of color Martin Dehorty was convicted of a felony and sold by the sheriff of Kent
County for a term of three years. The money from the sale went to the state treasury. Before his
arrest and trial, Dehorty owed Thomas Simpson debts totaling $46. Simpson seeks repayment of
the debt.
0725. Ennols Breeding requests permission to bring the slave Hannah from Sussex County,
Delaware, into Caroline County, Maryland. Breeding married Elizabeth Stephens, daughter of the
late John Stephens of Sussex County. Elizabeth's mother, administrator of the estate, cannot pay
Elizabeth her share of the estate in cash and offers instead the services of the twenty-six-year-old
Hannah.
0728. S. H. Hodson moved from Maryland to Kent County, Delaware. Hodson inherited a number
of slaves, including “some children…the number, or names, not a[t] this time recollected.” He
seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of
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18
slaves and asks permission to remove twelve slaves and several of their children from Maryland
to Delaware.
0731. Thomas Bailey moved from Sussex County, Delaware, to Somerset County, Maryland. At
the time of the move and for two years before, Bailey’s slave, Alsey, served a white family as a
nurse. Bailey seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove Alsey from Delaware into Maryland.
0735. In December 1822, illiterate white bricklayer Richard Millington, “a citizen of Caroline
County,” Maryland, moved to Delaware searching for work. Shortly after his arrival he was “taken
at the Suit of Luke Bell a black man” for a debt of $1.75 and placed in the Kent County jail.
Unable to pay even this small amount, Millington seeks relief from his “helpless and wretched
condition."
0738. Ann Rothwell of New Castle County, Delaware, specified in her will that her male slaves
were to be freed when they reached age thirty and her female slaves when they reached age
twenty-eight. She bequeathed to her granddaughters one slave each: the slave Rachel to Martha
Eliza Pennington and the slave Susan to Phebe H. Pennington. Hyland Pennington of Maryland,
father of Martha and Susan, purchased the slave Jeremiah, who was also part of the estate of
Ann Rothwell. Pennington seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove the slaves from Delaware
into Maryland.
0742. Citizens seek an alternative to the law regarding masters and apprentices. All too often, the
petitioners contend, apprentices remained with their masters until they reached the age of
seventeen or eighteen years and then ran away. If the runaways returned or were caught the
masters were responsible for their illnesses and diseases. The citizens ask that the law be
amended to strengthen the position of masters. Petitioners {20}: Brown, James; Chandler,
William; Hayes, Joseph; Simpson, James; Watson, James.
1824.
0745. Sussex County. Citizens seek the repeal of an 1816 Delaware law regarding free people of
color, servants, and slaves. The law required free black people convicted of larceny to be sold,
but in practice only slight punishment was administered. Free people of color, the petitioners
claim, were sold for little or nothing, quickly released, and soon back thieving. Indeed, they stole
with impunity and “of late seem to glory in it,” the petitioners claim. Free people of color, the
petitioners argue, were more favored than whites. The legislature should find some remedy for
this problem. Petitioners {54}: Brown, Francis; Handy, John; Short, Phillip; Smith, D. R.; Stockley,
Jehu.
0749. New Castle County. A group of white men petition the legislature for an act of incorporation
in order to maintain a school for the children of people of color. Petitioners {26}: Alrichs, Jacob;
Bullock, John; Jones, John; Seal, William; Starr, Isaac H.
0753. A group of whites object to a law now under discussion by the legislature that would require
the transportation out of the state of free persons of color convicted more than once of larceny.
The proposed law would consign free people of color to “perpetual slavery,” attract those who
“traffic in men,” and, as in the past, cause great uneasiness within the “christian part of the
community.” They ask that the legislature “hear from their constituents, before they give their
consent to the reenactment of a law which the people but a short period since repealed.”
Petitioners {92}: Bates, Martin W.; Fisher, George; Ready, Phillip; Rowland, Joseph G.; Vaughan,
J. Franklin.
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19
0758. Sussex County. Curtis Jacob gave the slave Vicy to his daughter as a gift when she
married a man in Dorchester County, Maryland. Curtis’s daughter died, and he now asks
permission to bring Vicy back to Delaware. He states that he plans to emancipate Vicy and wants
her back “solely for the purpose of Retaining her in his Family.” He claims that he “has been in
the Habit of emancipating his slaves at certain ages” and that Vicy would be freed when she
reached age thirty-four.
0761. Free man of color Martin Dehorty was convicted of a felony and sold by the sheriff of Kent
County for a term of three years. The money from the sale went to the state treasury. Before his
arrest and trial, Dehorty owed Thomas Simpson debts totaling $46. Simpson seeks repayment of
the debt.
0768. The petitioners urge the legislature to review the laws protecting free people of color and
slaves and to initiate “such steps as may lead to a gradual Abolition of Slavery.” They argue that
the “recent calamities in the West-Indies,” the alarm that recently spread through the southern
states, and the “experience of all nations having proved the impolicy of thus degrading our fellow
men” are sufficient cause for ending slavery. Petitioners {29}: Blundell, James; Green, Charles;
Lowber, Daniel; Needham, E.; Pierce, Abraham.
0771. Ennols Breeding requests permission to bring the slave John from Sussex County,
Delaware, into Caroline County, Maryland. Breeding married Elizabeth Stephens, daughter of the
late John Stephens of Sussex County. Elizabeth's mother, administrator of the estate, cannot pay
Elizabeth her share of the estate in cash and offers instead the three-year-old slave John.
0774. Citizens seek the repeal of an 1816 Delaware law regarding free people of color, servants,
and slaves. The law required free black people convicted of larceny be sold, but in practice only
slight punishment was administered. Free people of color, the petitioners claim, were sold for little
or nothing, quickly released, and soon returned to thieving. Indeed, they stole with impunity and
“of late seem to glory in it,” the petitioners claim. Free people of color, the petitioners argue, were
more favored than whites. The legislature should find some remedy for this problem. Sussex
County Petitioners {26}: Burton, Robert; Joseph, William; Prettyman, Benjamin; Robinson,
Burton; Sharp, John. Kent County Petitioners {81}: Green, Henry; Harris, George; Layton,
William; Prettyman, Lewis; Scotten, James. Sussex County Petitioners {107}: Cullen, Jonathan;
Waples, Robert; Waples, Robinson C.; Waples, Joseph, Jr.; Wilson, L. K. Sussex County
Petitioners {50}: Burton, Coard; Hill, Levi; Mustard, John; Parker, Peter, Sr.; Stephenson, William.
0789. John Price bought three slaves at his mother-in-law's estate sale. He seeks exemption
from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks
permission to bring the slaves from Maryland into Delaware. The slaves belonged to his wife's
family for many years, he claims. If he had “consulted his own interest, he would never have
purchased negroes of their age and in the state of Maryland too where it is well Know[n] that price
of slav[e]s is much greater than it is in Delaware.” His purpose was to save the slaves from sale
to the “southern Market."
0792. Benjamin Read inherited a slave from his brother-in-law, who lived in Cecil County,
Maryland. Read seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the slave Charles from Maryland into
Delaware.
0795. Petitioner Joseph Simms states that he resides near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He further
states that he recently bought a farm in Cecil County, Maryland, and that he owns several slaves
in Delaware. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove his slaves from Delaware to Maryland to
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20
work on his farm. The older slaves he had received in the year 1812 “in right of his wife,” the
younger were born after that date.
0798. Ezekiel Richardson of Sussex County, Delaware, inherited the slave Martha from his wife's
grandfather, late of Somerset County, Maryland. Richardson seeks exemption from the Delaware
law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring
Martha from Maryland to Delaware. Martha wished to move, he states, so that she could “live in
the family of your petitioner."
0801. Ann Jones of New Castle County, Delaware, requests permission to bring four slaves from
Maryland to Delaware. Jones states that she acquired the slaves from the estate of Thomas
Jones of Cecil County, Maryland.
0804. John Cary of Sussex County, Delaware, acquired several slaves through his marriage to a
woman from Worcester County, Maryland. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed
to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the slaves from
Maryland into Delaware.
0807. New Castle County. Sophia Geddes states that she owns a slave named Lydia, who lives
in Maryland. She seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation
and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring Lydia from Maryland into Delaware.
Geddes states that she wants to bring Lydia into the state “for her future welfare."
0810. Kent County. John Price of Kent County, Delaware, purchased three slaves in Maryland.
They included Samuel, age about thirty-eight, Charlotte, about twenty-two, and Fanny, about
forty-five. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the three slaves from Maryland into Delaware.
0813. The petitioners urge the legislature to review the laws protecting free people of color and
slaves and to initiate “such steps as may lead to a gradual Abolition of Slavery.” They argue that
the “recent calamities in the West-Indies,” the alarm that recently spread through the southern
states, and the “experience of all nations having proved the impolicy of thus degrading our fellow
men” are sufficient cause for ending slavery. Petitioners {51}: Houston, John; Hudson, John; Kirk,
John; Newcomb, John; Shockley, Elias.
0816. Nancy Fooks, wife of Jonathan Fooks and resident of Worcester County, Maryland,
inherited a slave from her mother, who had lived in Sussex County, Delaware. Fooks seeks
exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves
and asks permission to bring the slave Simon from Delaware to Maryland. Fooks states that
Simon's wife resides in Maryland, one mile from Fooks's residence, and that Simon is very
anxious to move. Petitioners {5}: Bacon, Henry; Fooks, Jonathan; Hearn, George; Hearn, Joseph;
Hearn, Thomas.
0819. The petitioners urge the legislature to review the laws protecting free people of color and
slaves and to initiate “such steps as may lead to a gradual Abolition of Slavery.” They argue that
the “recent calamities in the West-Indies,” the alarm that recently spread through the southern
states, and the “experience of all nations having proved the impolicy of thus degrading our fellow
men” are sufficient cause for ending slavery. Petitioners {11}: Anderson, Lewis; Copes, Joseph;
Moore, Isaac; Williamson, N.; Wilson, James P. Petitioners {8}: Maxwell, Robert; Rothwell,
Joseph; Thompson, Richard B.; Vandyke, Jacob; Williams, William.
0825. Samuel Hyatt Jr., a pump maker and pump repairman living in New Castle County,
Delaware, is “the owner of a certain manumitted Man Slave, named Jeremiah,” who assists him
in his business. Hyatt states that he often travels out of state. He requests permission to take
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21
“said Jeremiah out of the State whenever your petitioner has occasion to do so in pursuing” his
business.
Reel 2
Delaware (cont.)
0001. Descriptive material.
1825.
[January 1825 petition out of chronological order, see frame 0131.]
[3 January 1825 petition out of chronological order, see frame 0128.]
0007. New Castle County. Forty-two citizens of Wilmington support the passage of an act to
incorporate the African Benevolent Association. Petitioners {42}: Bringhurst, Joseph; Ferris,
Benjamin; Ferris, Liba; Reynolds, Charles; Reynolds, John.
0010. Sixteen citizens seek a law prohibiting persons of color from assembling at the polls during
general elections. The petitioners claim that persons of color, “by fighting, quarreling, and other
notorious and unlawful behavior,” had disrupted elections on a number of occasions. Their
actions encouraged “vice and immorality.” Petitioners {16}: Gray, William; Handy, John; Harris,
S.; Short, Phillip; Waples, William D.
0013. Sussex County. Citizens seek a law prohibiting persons of color from assembling at the
polls during general elections. The petitioners claim that persons of color through “fighting,
quarreling, and other riotous and unlawful” behavior had disrupted elections on a number of
occasions. Their actions encouraged “vice and immorality.” Petitioners {55}: Cannon, Daniel;
Cary, John; Jones, Zachariah; Robinson, Ralph; Swiggett, Aron.
0017. Thomas Ridon of Sussex County states that he recently became the owner of two slaves,
John and Peter, who are now in the state of Maryland. He seeks exemption from the Delaware
law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring
his slaves from Maryland into Delaware.
0020. Samuel Johnson of New Castle County, Delaware, states that he purchased the slave
William from his son-in-law, a resident of Maryland. Johnson states that William is to be freed in
five years and that he prefers to move William to Delaware rather than sell him to someone who
might not honor his manumission. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring William from
Maryland into Delaware.
0023. Thomas Moore of Sussex County, Delaware, states that he married Eleanor Howard of
Worcester County, Maryland. Eleanor's father, David Howard, gave his daughter the slave Anne.
Moore seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring Anne from Maryland into Delaware.
0026. Isaac Dale recently moved from Maryland into Delaware. The husband of his slave did not
want to be separated from his wife—they would be fifty miles apart—and Dale arranged to buy
the husband. Dale seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation
and exportation of slaves and asks permission to import the husband, George, from Maryland into
Delaware.
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22
0029. In 1823 the Court of Quarter Session in Kent County sentenced free man of color Thomas
Sykes to three years of servitude. He was sold to Charles Kimmey of Dover, who then sold him to
William Dulaney of Kent County. In 1824 Thomas Sykes was convicted of another felony and
sentenced to be sold at auction for seven years of servitude. Dulaney seeks compensation for
being “deprived of his property in said negro” for the two years remaining on service owed him.
1826.
0034. A group of Delaware citizens urge the legislature to enact a law providing for the gradual
abolition of slavery in Delaware. The petitioners suggest that slaves born after 4 July 1826 be
freed when they reach age twenty-one or “such other period as shall be deemed more expedient
and proper.” As the slave population was small (4,509 in 1820), the petitioners note, this plan
would not cause injury or loss to slaveholders. “A wrong has been inflicted upon Africa, for which
it is our duty as Christians and Patriots to make every reparation in our power.” Petitioners {23}:
Crosley, Robert; Hillingsworth, J.; Lynam, Joseph; Lynam, Thomas; Vandever, Peter.
0038. New Castle County. The Wilmington Society of Friends urges the legislature to immediately
abolish slavery. The petitioners argue that slavery is evil, unjust, and oppressive. “For we believe
it to be a truth, that in oppression, cruel suffering, and degradation, Negro Slavery remains
without a parallel in the known world."
0044. A group of Delaware citizens urge the legislature to enact a law providing for the gradual
abolition of slavery in Delaware. The petitioners suggest that slaves born after 4 July 1826 be
freed when they reach age twenty-one or “such other period as shall be deemed more expedient
and proper.” As the slave population was small (4,509 in 1820), the petitioners note, this plan
would not cause injury or loss to slaveholders. “A wrong has been inflicted upon Africa, for which
it is our duty as Christians and Patriots to make every reparation in our power.” Petitioners {49}:
Bush, Samuel; Ferris, John, Jr.; Ganett, Thomas, Jr.; Jones, Philip; Wigglesworth, Joseph.
0048. A group of Delaware citizens urge the legislature to enact a law providing for the gradual
abolition of slavery in Delaware. The petitioners suggest that slaves born after 4 July 1826 be
freed when they reach age twenty-one or “such other period as shall be deemed more expedient
and proper.” As the slave population was small (4,509 in 1820), the petitioners note, this plan
would not cause injury or loss to slaveholders. “A wrong has been inflicted upon Africa, for which
it is our duty as Christians and Patriots to make every reparation in our power.” Petitioners {31}:
Bassett, Josiah; Bassett, Nathan; Pepper, Henry J.; Smith, John; Webster, David.
0052. A group of Delaware citizens urge the legislature to enact a law providing for the gradual
abolition of slavery in Delaware. The petitioners suggest that slaves born after 4 July 1826 be
freed when they reach age twenty-one or “such other period as shall be deemed more expedient
and proper.” As the slave population was small (4,509 in 1820), the petitioners note, this plan
would not cause injury or loss to slaveholders. “A wrong has been inflicted upon Africa, for which
it is our duty as Christians and Patriots to make every reparation in our power.” Petitioners {19}:
Bane, William; Bradford, M.; Reece, Thomas; Saunders, Charles; Thomas, Isaac. Petitioners
{29}: Bancroft, John; Caulley, William; Poole, William; Snipley, Samuel; Tatnall, Edward.
Petitioners {53}: Lamborn, Cyrus; Latimer, Henry; Megear, Michael; Scott, James; Shalleross,
John. Petitioners {30}: Chandler, William; Gordon, John; Staples, John; Stroud, Samuel;
Torbert, John.
0068. Isaac Davis owns three slaves who are to be manumitted in the future and holds the
indenture on a free black apprentice. They work on his farm in Cecil County, Maryland. Davis also
owns a farm in Kent County, Delaware, and is “extensively engaged in agricultural pursuits” in
both states. He has three black indentured servants—Charles Carpenter, Mitchel Davis, and John
Davis—working his land in Kent County. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission for his slaves to plant and
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23
harvest his crops in both states. He is “no slaveholder except as he occasionally buys and
manumits them by which their eventual freedom is secured, And that the sole object of this
petition is to enable him to avail himself of the reasonable labor of said slaves (so called) and
apprentices in his own employment."
0072. Kent County. Curtis Beswick acquired the female slave Gastura through his marriage to
Sarah S. Purnell, a resident of Maryland. He states that he is very much attached to the slave. He
seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of
slaves and asks permission bring Gastura from Maryland into Delaware.
0075. New Castle County. Peregrine Hendrickson states that he is “possessed” of slaves and
“manumitted Negroes” in the state of Maryland. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law
designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the
slaves and manumitted people of color from Maryland into Delaware.
0078. Kent County. Joel Clements owns the slave Jefferson, who resides in Maryland. He seeks
exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves
and asks permission to bring Jefferson into Delaware. Clements promises to free Jefferson on 1
January 1833, “when your petitioner agrees that the said slave shall be free and entitled to all the
privileges and immunities of free negroes and mulattoes of the State of Delaware, the said negro
Jefferson being at present a slave for life."
0081. Richard Lockwood of Cecil County, Maryland, purchased two slaves from estate sales in
Delaware. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the slaves from Delaware into Maryland. The
thirteen-year-old slave was to be manumitted in the future.
0084. Robert Rauleigh owns plantations in Dorchester County, Maryland, and Sussex County,
Delaware. He states that his slave labor force is divided between the two counties. He seeks
exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves
and asks permission for his slaves to work the land in both states.
0087. John Gibbons of Sussex County, Delaware, received the slave Aaron as a present from his
father-in-law, a resident of Maryland. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring Aaron from
Maryland into Delaware. Aaron, the petitioner states, will be used “solely for the purpose of a
servant."
0090. O. Horsey resides two-thirds of the year in Maryland and one-third in Delaware. He states
that among his domestic servants are slaves and the “children of manumitted slaves born before
the term of service expired and the females and mails respectively under the ages of twenty one
& twenty five.” He requests permission to move his slaves back and forth between the two states.
0093. Jane Taylor of Queen Anne's County, Maryland, owns three slaves who reside in
Delaware. She seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove her slaves from Delaware.
0096. Sussex County. As a minor, Isaac Giles moved from Maryland to Delaware in 1817 and
learned the trade of blacksmithing as an apprentice. He states that he owns the slave Arthur, now
residing with Giles's guardian in Maryland. The petitioner notes that he tried to bring his slave into
Delaware but was denied legislative permission because he was a minor. Now an adult, he again
seeks exemption from a Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of
slaves and asks permission to bring Arthur into Delaware.
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24
0099. The slave Nathan absconded from his master, Mary Ann Harper of Queen Anne’s County,
Maryland, and made his way to the farm of Thomas Smith in New Castle County, Delaware.
Nathan feared if he was returned he would be sold to Georgia. He pleaded with Smith to
purchase him so he could remain in Delaware. Smith agreed; he seeks exemption from the
Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission
to purchase Nathan and maintain him as a slave.
1827.
0102. New Castle County. The Wilmington Union Colonization Society expresses concern about
the expanding free black population. The petitioner argues that free people of color do not and
cannot enjoy the most important civil privileges (voting and office holding), cannot associate with
whites, and will not be accepted on a basis of equality. The petitioner suggests that free people of
color emigrate to the west coast of Africa, where the American Colonization Society has obtained
land, and asks the legislature to study the matter.
0111. Citizens of Delaware sign a statement of support for the memorial presented by the
Wilmington Colonization Society. Petitioners {105}: Griffin, George; Hendrickson, Isaac; Porter,
Alexander; Powell, John; Watson, James.
0115. New Castle County. Moses Bradford owns a “manumitted negro girl, named Ann,” who
resides in Cecil County, Maryland. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring Ann into
Delaware. Ann is about nine years old.
0118. New Castle County. Ann Bail of Wilmington, Delaware, states that she is the owner of a
four-year-old term slave named Rachel who lives in Cecil County, Maryland. Bail seeks
exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves
and asks permission to remove Rachel from Maryland into Delaware. The slave was to be freed
when she reached age twenty-eight.
0124. Kent County. Maryland and Delaware slaveholder Richard Holding, “extensively engaged
in Agricultural pursuits,” seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission for his slaves to pass between the two
states. He needs them to do “the planting sowing and harvesting” on his farms.
0128. By “right of his wife,” Major Lewis of Sussex County, Delaware, inherited six slaves from
the estate of Planner Elliott of Dorchester County, Maryland. He had petitioned the legislature and
been granted permission to bring the slaves into the state. He had recently acquired a slave
named Charity, he states, in the settlement of another estate and seeks exemption from the
Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves so that he may bring
Charity into Delaware. [Publisher’s Note: date of petition is January 3, 1825; petition out of
chronological sequence.]
0131. New Castle County. Members of the African Benevolent Association seek an act of
incorporation for their organization. Formed in 1820 “to promote good order” and to “cultivate
virtuous principles” among their “brethren the people of Colour,” they provide “relief in sickness,
want and distress.” Petitioners {30}: Burton, Joseph; Morgan, Jacob; Morris, John; Robeson,
Nathaniel; Shadd, Abraham. [Publisher’s Note: date of petition is January 1825; petition out of
chronological sequence.]
0141. New Castle County. Joseph Hossinger acquired the slave Jacob through the death of his
brother-in-law, late of Kent County, Maryland. Hossinger seeks exemption from the Delaware law
designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove
Jacob from Maryland into Delaware.
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0144. New Castle County. As guardian of her son, Sarah Banning of Wilmington, Delaware, has
control of the slave Mabel Skinner, who lives in Maryland. Banning seeks exemption from the
Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission
to bring Skinner into Delaware from Maryland.
0147. Sarah Hudson of Sussex County, Delaware, owns the slave Mary, who resides in
Maryland. She seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring Mary into Delaware from Maryland.
0150. Kent County. Curtis Beswick states that he owns the slave Caleb, who lives in Maryland.
Beswick seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring Caleb from Maryland into Delaware.
0153. John Robertson of Kent County, Delaware, states that he acquired a nine-year-old slave
girl as a present from his father-in-law, a resident of Maryland. Robertson seeks exemption from
the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks
permission to bring the slave into Delaware.
0156. Kent County. When she was quite young, Maryland resident Mary McDonough was
“presented with a Negro girl called Jane & at that time she [McDonough] resided in the State of
Delaware.” Now McDonough seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove her slave from Delaware
into Maryland.
0159. Levi Cathell states that he and his wife, Priscillia, are residents of Worcester County,
Maryland. They inherited twelve slaves through the death of Priscillia's father, who lived in
Sussex County, Delaware. Leah, the elder, and Peter are brother and sister; the other ten “are all
the Children of Leah.” The petitioner seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent
the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove the twelve slaves from
Delaware into Maryland. The slaves would be employed in agriculture.
0162. New Castle County. Samuel Hyatt states that he is a pump maker who does business in
Delaware and Maryland. Traveling to Maryland without his slave Moses subjects Hyatt “to
considerable inconvenience & loss.” He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to take his slave with him
across the state line on business.
1829.
0165. Arguing against the institution that denied blacks “certain unalienable rights, among which
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” a group of Delaware whites urge the legislature “to
enact a law prescribing that all children who may be born of slaves within this State, at any time
hereafter, shall be free, at such ages as the Legislature may judge expedient.” Petitioners {33}:
Delaplain, Neh.; Dwayne, Thomas; Hollingsworth, A.; Hollingsworth, Jesse; Wilson, Thomas.
0168. Convinced of the “impolicy as well as injustice of Negro slavery,” eighty-one citizens
propose that “all children born of slaves, shall be free at age 21, 28, or whatever age you, in your
wisdom, may deem best.” Petitioners {81}: Gray, Joshua; Henry, John; Smithers, Elias; Williams,
S.; Wise, Samuel. Petitioners {18}: Aldred, William A.; Askew, Parker; Price, John H.; Price,
Joseph T.; Price, Henry, Jr.
0175. Kent County. Elias Naudain seeks permission to sell his term slave, Joshua Rodney, out of
the state of Delaware. Though it could not be proved in court, Naudain was convinced that
Rodney burned down his blacksmith shop, ran away, came back and burned down his stable (six
horses perished), and had previously set fire to and destroyed a neighbor's dwelling house.
Rodney had run away from his previous master.
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0178. Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. A reward of $200 was posted by the governor of
Delaware for the apprehension of Samuel Ogg, a man of color accused of robbery and attempted
murder who had escaped from the Dover jail. Ogg was apprehended by John Engles and William
Warmock in Philadelphia; the men seek payment of their reward.
0186. Arguing against the institution that denies blacks “certain unalienable rights, among which
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” a group of Delaware white people urge the
legislature “to enact a law prescribing that all children who may be born of slaves within this
State, at any time hereafter, shall be free, at such ages as the Legislature may judge expedient.”
Petitioners {133}: Heald, Henry; Peirce, Isaac; Philips, John C.; Porter, Alexander; Smyth, David.
Petitioners {37}: Ferris, John, Jr.; Garrett, Thomas, Jr.; Jackson, Isaac; Larnborn, Cyrus; Leonard,
Frederick.
0194. William Holland seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove three slaves from Delaware
into Maryland.
0197. Louis M. Lane states that in 1812 he came into possession “in right of his wife of a number
of negro slaves, many of whom he then and has since manumitted as they attained a suitable
age and were in a situation to be benefited by their freedom.” Lane still owned some slaves,
whom he planned to free, but in the meantime he owned a farm along the Bohemia River in Cecil
County, Maryland, and wished to work the slaves on the farm. Lane seeks exemption from the
Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission
for his slaves to travel to Maryland to work on his farm.
0201. Joseph Brown of Kent County, Delaware, states that he owns a number of slaves in
Caroline County, Maryland. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the slaves from Maryland into
Delaware.
0205. Joseph Dutton of Sussex County, Delaware, acquired a slave from General William Potter
of Caroline County, Maryland. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent
the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the slave Rachel from
Maryland into Delaware. Dutton promises to hold Rachel as a slave for a term of ten years after
the passage of an act permitting him to bring her into the state.
0208. Having received the slave Levi from the estate of Theodore Thomas of Cecil County,
Maryland, the petitioner requests an exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the
importation and exportation of slaves and asks for permission to bring Levi into Delaware.
0211. Kent County. Owner of a Maryland slave named Charlotte, the petitioner seeks exemption
from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and
requests that an act be passed authorizing him to bring Charlotte into Delaware.
0214. Manlove Jester of New Castle County, Delaware, purchased the slave Mary from Caleb
Harper of Cecil County, Maryland, for the term of six years. Jester promised to free Mary at the
end of that time. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation
and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring Mary from Maryland into Delaware.
0218. Ayres Stockly of Kent County, Delaware, inherited two slaves from his father, who lived in
Accomack County, Virginia. Stockly seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent
the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the slaves from Virginia
into Delaware.
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0221. William Cooch purchased a slave named Sophia for a term or fourteen years or until she
reached the age of thirty from the estate of Theodore Thomas of Cecil County, Maryland. Cooch
seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of
slaves and asks permission to bring Sophia into Delaware from Maryland.
0224. Robert Armstrong of Baltimore, Maryland, acquired two slaves through his marriage to
Sarah Luisa Bell of Sussex County, Delaware. Armstrong seeks exemption from the Delaware
law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove
the slaves from Delaware into Maryland.
0227. Jeremiah Morris of Sussex County, Delaware, requests permission to bring the slave Isaac
from Maryland into Delaware. Morris states that Isaac currently belongs to his sister-in-law,
Betsey Freeny of Worcester County, Maryland. Freeny inherited the slave from her father. Freeny
wants to sell Isaac to Morris and move to Delaware to be with her sister’s family. According to
Morris, Isaac was “also very desirous to come and live with and in the family of your Petitioner."
0231. George Wootton of Sussex County, Delaware, states that when he married Elizabeth King
of Worcester County, Maryland, her grandfather, Jesse Powell, gave her three slaves. The slaves
were Gatty and her children, Maria and Mary. Wootton seeks exemption from the Delaware law
designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the
slaves from Maryland into Delaware.
0236. Dorchester County, Maryland. Delaware slaveholder Thomas Handy states that he recently
moved to New Market, Maryland. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to take his two slaves—
Clem and George—from Delaware into Maryland.
0239. New Castle County. Stevens Woolford requests permission to bring four slaves from
Virginia and Maryland into Delaware. Woolford states that in 1816 he married a Virginia woman
named Casey Waples, who owned four slaves: Milley and her two children, Abel and Peter, and
an adult slave named Charles. In 1818 Woolford and his wife moved to Maryland, taking Charles
with them. In 1819 they returned to Virginia but left Charles in Maryland. Two years later the
couple moved to Delaware. Woolford now wishes to move Charles from Maryland and Milley and
her children from Virginia to Delaware.
0242. Benjamin Wattson states that he purchased Rachel and her child, William, in Cecil County,
Maryland. Wattson wants to keep them as “Domestics in his own Family.” He seeks exemption
from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks
permission to bring Rachel and William into Delaware. Wattson promises to free Rachel when
she reaches age twenty-eight.
0245. Delaware resident William Duhamel owns a Maryland slave named George. The petitioner
seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of
slaves and asks permission to bring George into Delaware.
0248. Convinced of the “impolicy as well as injustice of Negro slavery,” one hundred and thirty
qualified voters in Delaware propose that “all children born of slaves, shall be free at age 21, 28,
or whatever age you, in your wisdom, may deem best.” Petitioners {130}: Clendenin, Samuel;
Henry, Francis; McCullough, John; Swayne, Joel; Weatherall, William.
1830.
0252. New Castle County. Organizing themselves as the “Sons of Benevolence in the Town of
Newcastle,” a small group of Delaware free people of color seek an act of incorporation. They
state that they hope to suppress vice and immorality among free people of color and to create a
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fund for burials and to provide for the sick and indigent. Petitioners {7}: Darby, Caleb; Finney,
James; Finney, Levi; Jackson, Peter; Jackson, Robert.
0256. John Dashull of Somerset County, Maryland, was given the slave John by his aunt, Mary
Jones, of Sussex County, Delaware. The slave had been bound as an apprentice blacksmith until
he reached age twenty-one. Now that John’s term has expired Dashull states that he wishes to
“employ him in a Blacksmith Shop” in Maryland. He asks permission to remove John from
Delaware into Maryland.
0260. New Castle County. James Thompson seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed
to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring the elderly
slave Hannah from Virginia into Delaware.
1831.
0265. Sussex County. Free man of color William Toast, alias William Collins, was convicted in the
Court of Quarter Sessions of Sussex County in 1828 for stealing $5.50 and sentenced to a term
of seven years in slavery. Purchased by Benjamin Potter Jr., Toast absconded to Philadelphia.
Toast later returned, was again convicted of theft, and was sentenced to fourteen years in
slavery. He was sold to another man for $181. Potter seeks compensation for court costs and
restitution.
0272. The “American Convention for promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and improving the
condition of the African race,” which assembled in Washington, D.C., asks the Delaware
legislature to instruct its congressional delegation to press for the gradual abolition of slavery in
the District of Columbia. Petitioners {4}: Anderson, Robert; Cope, Charles; Parker, Joseph;
Rawle, W.
0274. John Watson Evans states that he owns two slaves now residing in Maryland. He seeks
exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves
and asks permission to bring the slaves—Evan and Hiram—from Maryland into Delaware.
0276. The “American Convention for promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and improving the
condition of the African race,” which assembled in Washington, D.C., asks the Delaware
legislature to instruct its congressional delegation to press for the gradual abolition of slavery in
the District of Columbia. Petitioners {4}: Anderson, Robert; Cope, Charles; Parker, Joseph;
Rawle, W.
1832.
0280. New Castle County. The memorialists, fearing “general insurrection” fueled by black
preachers, ask the legislature to prohibit people of color from owning firearms or other military
weapons, “to prohibit all nocturnal assemblies,” and to prohibit ingress of free people of color into
the state “upon plea of preaching.” Petitioners {25}: Crawford, Abner; Jones, Charles; Jones,
Zachariah; Spare, James; Tabman, Collins. Petitioners {9}: Caulk, Benjamin; Crawford, Alex;
Hendrickson, Perey; McWhorter, John; Wilson, Edward. Petitioners {23}: Biddle, Eli; Carpenter,
W.; Cleaver, Joseph; Craven, D.; VanDegrift, C. J. Petitioners {10}: McWhorter, David; Price,
Thomas; Simmons, Lawrence; Taylor, James; Towns, James R. Petitioners {70}: Carrow, James;
Foster, Charles; Lane, Thomas; Reynolds, Thomas; Templeman, Henry. Petitioners {7}: Clark,
Levi; Exton, John; Polk, Robert; Reybold, Philip; Tindall, Samuel L. Petitioners {12}: Ash, John;
Clark, Thomas; Hanes, William; Jefferson, Samuel; Kaisner, George W. Petitioners {18}:
Bowman, William; Burnham, James H.; Cox, Samuel; Holden, Isaac; McCrackin, John.
Petitioners {23}: Biddle, William; Crow, Andrew; Griffith, Joseph; Houston, George; Pouge,
Thomas. Petitioners {31}: Ellis, Joseph; Hastings, Eli; Lewis, Levin B.; Readen, Moulton; Windsor,
C. C.
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0308. Reacting to a rumored slave insurrection in Sussex County, thirty-one citizens request laws
that would prohibit nighttime assemblies of black people, bar black preachers from migrating to
the state, and forbid slaves or free blacks from owning or possessing firearms and other military
weapons. Petitioners {31}: Ellis, Joseph; Hastings, Eli; Lewis, Levin B.; Readen, Moulton;
Windsor, C. C.
0312. White citizens seek a law that would prohibit people of color from carrying arms or keeping
them in their houses and suggest the organization of a volunteer military force to preserve order
and protect civil authority in case of emergency. Petitioners {134}: Brackin, William; Chander,
Sidney; Derickson, Aquila; Ochiltree, James; Seal, Thomas.
0317. Sussex County. Francis Ludenum states that he was freed from slavery at the age of forty.
Now age sixty, he states that he labors hard to support his wife and seven children. Ludenum
seeks a divorce from his wife on the grounds that she is insane and is a “continuous and heavy
expense."
0320. Kent County. Dover residents complain that they “are much annoyed and put to great
inconvenience by nightly assemblages of negroes and mulattoes in the streets and upon the
public square.” They claim that people of color fire guns and “crackers” and light bonfires. The
petitioners seek a law granting greater powers to local authorities to suppress such assemblies.
Petitioners {31}: Bates, Martin; Clarke, W. John; Manlove, J. G.; Stevenson, Thomas; Wootten,
Charles H.
0325. The petitioners seek the repeal of a Delaware law prohibiting all persons from transporting,
carrying, or selling slaves out of the state. Petitioners {6}: Cook, Caleb; Engle, John; Foote,
William R.; Huston, Samuel; Springer, Lewis.
0330. James Windsor, administrator of the estate of the late John G. Anderson, seeks permission
to make a deed for a town lot to Jacob Trader, a free man of color who purchased the lot but did
not have “any right to the same."
1833.
0333. These free people of color petition for the repeal of the “Act to prevent the use of firearms
by free negroes and free mulattoes” that was passed by the Delaware legislature on 10 February
1832. The law, they argue, interferes with their religious privileges, violates their “rights of
conscience,” and exposes them to the “horrors of perpetual slavery.” They argue that they have
always conducted themselves in a peaceable and quiet manner and that many among them have
acquired land and other property. They “flatter themselves, that they had gained the confidence of
their superiors.” Petitioners {13}: Bounds, Plimmouth; Burton, Solomon; Ingram, Laurel; Tingle,
Jacob C.; Wright, Jacob. Petitioners {3}: Christopher, Zachariah; Hickman, James; Tunnell,
Sampson. Petitioners {28}: Gibes, Robert; Holsman, Robert; Parker, Simon; Richards, John;
White, Lewis. Petitioners {28}: Lewis, Cesar; Lewis, Peter; Mitchell, Pompey; Sommers, Cato;
Sommers, Jacob.
0343. Thirty-nine citizens of Delaware support the petition of the free people of color seeking the
repeal of the 1832 law regarding firearms. Petitioners {39}: Rodney, Caleb; West, Bailey; West,
John M.; West, Wuxham; West, Jacob, Jr.
0346. These free people of color petition for the repeal of the “Act to prevent the use of firearms
by free negroes and free mulattoes” that was passed by the Delaware legislature on 10 February
1832. The law, they argue, interferes with their religious privileges, violates their “rights of
conscience,” and exposes them to the “horrors of perpetual slavery.” They argue that they have
always conducted themselves in a peaceable and quiet manner and that many among them have
acquired land and other property. They “flatter themselves, that they had gained the confidence of
their superiors.” Petitioners {9}: Hanzen, Isaac; Johnson, Burton; Johnson, Burton; Johnson,
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Mitchell; Johnson, Purnell. Petitioners {9}: Duccas, James; Hanson, Jack; Hanson, Nehemiah;
Robison, Andrew; Robison, Thomas.
0351. Two citizens of Delaware support the petition of the free people of color that seeks the
repeal of the 1832 law regarding ownership of firearms. Petitioners {2}: Morris, Robert; Wingate,
Thomas.
0353. Ninety-eight whites support the 1832 statute concerning free blacks and firearms and “pray
that the Law referred to may not be meddled with.” Petitioners {98}: Ely, Robert; Hudson, Cyrus
C.; Knoles, William; Movain, Griffith; Wright, Elisha.
0358. The petitioners state that they own farms in Sussex County, Delaware, and in Maryland
and are joint owners of nineteen slaves. They seek exemption from the Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and ask permission to move slaves back and
forth between their farms at their own convenience. Petitioners {3}: Wright, Charles; Wright,
Jacob; Wright, Turpin.
0362. Robert Palmatary of Kent County, Delaware, contracted with a Maryland slave owner to
purchase the slave James Thompson. Palmatary seeks exemption from the Delaware law
designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring
Thompson into Delaware, promising to emancipate him after six years.
0365. The petitioners ask the legislature to repeal the ban on free people of color owning
firearms. Petitioners {5}: Harmon, John; Robinson, Moses; Stewart, Charles; Towsand, Prince;
Vinson, Leven.
0367. The petitioner supports the request of free people of color for the repeal of the law
prohibiting black people from owning firearms. Petitioner: Layton, Caleb L.
0369. Convicted of kidnapping in 1832, Isaac Tyre was sentenced to receive sixty lashes on his
bare back, well laid on. He was then to be committed for three years of solitary confinement in the
public jail of Sussex County. After his jail time he was to be sold to the highest bidder for seven
years. The governor, however, remitted the jail time. An excellent blacksmith, Tyre was
purchased by Elijah Gordy for $331, but a few days after the purchase Tyre escaped from the jail.
Three years later, he was still at large. Gordy petitions the legislature for reimbursement.
0374. New Castle County. Appointed by Delaware Governor Caleb P. Bennett to retrieve Robert
Harris, a fugitive charged with kidnapping, Robert Ritchie went to Chestertown, Maryland,
secured Harris, and brought him back to the town of New Castle. The journey was “attended with
loss of time, considerable expense, and great hazard.” Ritchie asks to be compensated.
1837.
0378. Thirty-two citizens of Sussex County seek the repeal of a Delaware law of 1827 prohibiting
the exportation of slaves to any other state or territory. The law had “a most powerful tendency to
render Slaves disobedient and Consequently far less useful and valuable to their owners than
they would otherwise be, leading at the same time to the exportation of many Slaves contrary to
this law and to many and indeed to a great portion of the frequent Cases of Kidnapping with
which Your Courts of Justice are so often resorted to in vain for redress by the enforcement of
this law.” Petitioners {32}: Lockwood, John H.; Prettyman, Marvel; Prettyman, Robert; Richards,
John M.; Robinson, Benjamin.
0383. In 1809, Delaware resident John Cooper manumitted several slaves, including a woman
named Lydia. By 1826, Lydia had married the free man of color John Hawkins, and the couple
had three children (Charity, Sally, and John) and were living in Caroline County, Maryland.
However, John Cooper's son-in-law, John Willoughby, convinced Cooper that the Delaware
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manumissions were not valid in Maryland and that Cooper faced prosecution for allowing his
former slaves to move there. Willoughby thus “seduced” Cooper to sign a deed conveying Lydia
and her children to Willoughby, to Cooper's son, Richard, and to other relatives. Soon after,
Willoughby and Richard Cooper took Lydia and her children to the Sussex County jail with “the
intention to selling them to southern traders.” John Cooper and another of his sons learned of this
and demanded that the former slaves be released, which they were. The freed slaves were never
bothered again during John Cooper's life, the petitioner states. In April 1836, however,
Willoughby and a gang of armed men kidnapped Hawkins' three children and the children of
others freed by John Cooper and carried them to the jail in Queen Anne's County, Maryland.
Willoughby's objective was to sell them to “foreign traders, or carry them to the south himself.”
The case of their freedom is still pending in Queen Anne's County, Maryland. Hawkins seeks an
act that would affirm the legality of the manumission of his wife and children.
0395. Joseph Ford of Washington, D.C., seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to remove Jane Green, a
“family slave” inherited by his wife.
0398. Delaware resident Nicholas Bell of Sussex County owns a fishing dock on the Nanticoke
River about two miles below the Maryland state line. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law
designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to bring two
slaves, Hannah and Ra[chel?], into Maryland to assist him in his fishing operations.
0401. Sussex County. J. Ginn states that he is retiring from farming. He owns a term slave,
George Johnson, who has about three or four years left to serve. Ginn seeks exemption from the
Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission
to sell George to a man in Cecil County, Maryland.
1839.
0404. In 1822, Delaware free man of color John Hutson was indicted and convicted on four
counts of larceny. He was sentenced to pay $118.50 restitution or spend seven years as a term
slave. Unable to pay, he was sold for $260 to Benjamin F. Barstow, a resident of Georgia. When
his term expired Huston returned to Delaware and asked David C. Wilson, sheriff of New Castle
County, to refund to him the difference between the amount of restitution required by the court
and his sale price. The sheriff informed him that he had turned the surplus over to the state
treasury. Hutson asks the legislature for the money.
0408. John Green states that he was confined to the Kent County jail when he could not pay his
debts. He seeks relief on the grounds that his family is dependent upon him for support. If he
remains imprisoned his family “may become paupers on the County."
0411. New Castle County. The women of the city of Wilmington seek the abolition of slavery.
They argue that slavery is “inconsistent with the sentiments nobly avowed in the Declaration of
Independence, which secures unto all men the unalienable rights, with which they are endowed
by their Creator.” The legislature should adopt resolutions “abolishing slavery throughout this
state.” Such would forever “relieve it from a burden oppressive both to master and slave.”
Petitioners {319}: Hilles, Gulalma; Hilles, Margaret; Hilles, Martha; Knight, Martha B.; Robinson,
Catherine.
0416. Former Kent County Sheriff Nehemiah Clark denies that he owes the state $136.04, as
claimed in the state auditor's report. In 1828 Clark had sold Absalom Davis, a “negro man”
convicted of a crime, to Abel Harris. When it was discovered that the black man suffered from a
life-threatening “disorder,” Harris refused to pay. Clark supported Harris' decision. He neither
demanded the money nor took legal action, leaving a delinquency in the accounts. Clark asks the
legislature for relief.
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0421. Kent County. Isaac Walker moved from Delaware to Maryland. He seeks exemption from
the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks
permission to remove his slave, Moses, from Delaware into Maryland.
0424. Lewis McConckin moved from Maryland to Kent County, Delaware. He seeks exemption
from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks
permission to bring two slave children from Maryland into Delaware.
0427. Catherine and John Robinson of Caroline County in Maryland inherited two young slaves
from their grandfather, Ralph Robinson of Sussex County, Delaware, in 1831. George Martin, the
guardian of Catherine and John, now asks for an exemption from the Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves so that he may bring the slaves Julia and
William from Delaware into Maryland. At present the slaves are “of little or no service to the
legatee."
1840.
0430. Thomas Clarkson, president of the Convention of the Friends of the Negro, “assembled
from various parts of the world” in London, England, requests that the state of Delaware take
immediate action to abolish slavery and aid in the abolition of the slave trade.
1841.
0435. The petitioners complain about the difficulty of obtaining “efficient and responsible hirelings
and laborers” for their farms and households. This was due to “the great number of lazy,
irresponsible, lawless, and miserable free negroes and mulattoes” in their county. The free people
of color roamed from city to country “as whim or necessity may drive them in their erratic and
wayward course.” Thus farmers “are deserted by the laborers they have employed in the
cultivation of their crops.” The petitioners ask the legislature to enact laws that will enable “our
farmers and housekeepers to compel such as would otherwise be idle and worthless, to enter into
engagements for the month or year, at the customary wages.” Kent County Petitioners {90}:
Boyer, James; Denney, William; Ford, Daniel; Griffin, Samuel; Hoffecker, Joseph. Sussex County
Petitioners {22}: Cannon, Edmunson; Cannon, Elijah; Jacobs, James M.; Lewis, John; Ross,
Edward. Sussex County Petitioners {24}: Adams, John; Goshen, M.; Honey, Nathaniel; Neal,
Jacob K.; Ross, Curtis J. Kent County Petitioners {20}: Green, James; Prettyman, Cornelius;
Slayton, David H.; Tilney, Jonathan; Webster, A. Kent County Petitioners {22}: Atkinson, John W.;
Jacobs, William K.; Jones, William, Jr.; Smith, N. O.; Williamson, Charles. Kent County
Petitioners {44}: Duhamell, Daniel; Milbourn, Samuel W.; Smith, David J.; Smith, Joseph; Virdin,
William. Kent County Petitioners {21}: Adams, C. N.; Atkinson, Henry; Bullock, John; Cahall,
Archibald; Smith, William. Kent County Petitioners {18}: Cannon, Daniel; Cannon, Stansbury;
Cannon, Wingate; Lord, Thomas; White, Thomas J. Kent County Petitioners {28}: Graham,
Ezekiel; Graham, Whitley; Pratt, Eli; Scott, Nathan; Wheeler, Robert. New Castle County
Petitioners {65}: Crouch, Thomas; King, William; Townsend, John; Townsend, Samuel; Veldon,
William. Kent County Petitioners {32}: Blackiston, R. H.; Davis, James; Hillyard, A.; Patterson,
Robert; Temple, Thomas.
0473. A group of whites lament the number of laborers who hire themselves out for a specified
period of time but fail to fulfill their contract obligations. The petitioners seek a law that would
make such a breach of contract “finable or damageable” before a justice of the peace. Petitioners
{18}: Anderson, James C.; Anderson, John D.; Campbell, John W.; Emerson, John P.;
Harrington, William.
1843.
0476. New Castle County. The African School Society seeks an amendment to its original act of
incorporation to increase its property holdings beyond $5,000. The society had expended nearly
$2,500 in purchasing lots and erecting two school houses, one for boys and one for girls. The
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income from the remaining funds was sufficient to support only the school for boys, and it was
necessary to raise up to $15,000 in additional funds to keep both schools open for “the otherwise
destitute colored children in this city.” Petitioners {2}: Gibbons, H.; Tatnall, Edward.
0480. Sussex County. Samuel Laws seeks an exemption from the Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission for his slaves to work on
land in both Maryland and Delaware. Laws's children live in both states, he states, and he is
anxious to assist them in their “agricultural pursuits."
0483. Kent County. Free man of color Isaac Longfellow was convicted of theft and sold for a term
of seven years to raise restitution money and pay costs. William H. J. Comegys, a victim in the
case, asks that money from Longfellow's sale exceeding that needed for restitution be divided
prorata among the three white victims of the larceny.
0489. Fifty-one free persons of color seek the repeal of the third and fourth sections of the 1832
act concerning free people of color. They contend that the sections interfere with their ability to
worship “according to the dictates of their consciences.” Furthermore, several free people of color
have been unjustly charged with violations of the law and forced to appear in court. Petitioners
{51}: Burton, Elish; Johnson, Return; Lockum, Elish; Parker, George; Tingle, Henry.
0493. New Castle County petitioners seek the repeal of a law granting free people of color the
right to carry firearms. The petitioners argue that free people of color who owned guns have
created many problems, including the “shooting of a respectable and worthy citizen.” Any
storekeeper or other person who supplies free persons of color with arms or ammunition should
be subject to a fine. Petitioners {24}: Cassidy, Peter; Day, John W.; Day, Wm. M.; Talley, William
W.; Wickersham, Amos H.
0497. Kent County. Free man of color Jesse Dean died intestate, leaving fifty acres of land and
some personal property. John Dean and Thomas Butcher, Jesse's half-brothers, ask the
legislature for the right, interest, and title to the property. Otherwise, they said, it would revert to
the state. Jesse, John, and Thomas Butcher were children of the same white man by different
women of color. The petitioners describe themselves as the “illegitimate brother[s] of the half
blood."
0501. Free man of color Mitchell Anderson died intestate, leaving a lot and small house in Kent
County that escheated to the state of Delaware. Luther Swiggett argues that the property will be
an expense to the state. Promising to pay the costs incurred by the escheator “in making the
Inquisition,” Swiggitt asks for title and interest in the property.
0504. White petitioners argue that the public good requires that free people of color be denied the
use of firearms in the state of Delaware. They ask for a repeal the 1832 statute permitting justices
of the peace to issue licenses to members of the group. Petitioners {49}: Caulk, Jacob; Clayton,
J. M.; Clement, R.; Moore, W. E.; Young, N.
0508. In 1809, Charles and another slave were arrested for theft and jailed. The other slave was
returned to his owner in Maryland, a woman in Queen Anne's County. Charles, however,
escaped from jail before he could be indicted and tried. Now, thirty-four years later, Andrew Gray
of Kent County seeks compensation for the loss of the slave Charles.
0512. Kent County. Andrew Gray asks the legislature to reconsider its decision rejecting his
original petition of January 1843 and asks again for compensation for his slave, Charles, who was
arrested and escaped from jail in 1809.
0518. Worcester County. Curtis Jacobs and William Holland state that they own a plantation lying
partly in Delaware and partly in Maryland. They also own several uncultivated tracts of land in
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Delaware. They could clear the heavily timbered tracts and put them under cultivation “at a much
cheaper rate” by using their slaves than by hiring laborers. They seek exemption from the
Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and ask permission
for their slaves to work the land in both states.
0521. Sussex County. Elijah Cannon purchased “of a moiety of a Seine ground and right of
fishery” lying partly in Maryland and partly in Delaware. He used slaves to conduct his fishing
business. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to work his slaves in both states.
0524. New Castle County petitioners seek the repeal of a law granting free people of color the
right to carry firearms. The petitioners argue that free people of color who owned guns have
created many problems, including the “shooting of a respectable and worthy citizen.” Any
storekeeper or other person who supplies free persons of color with arms or ammunition should
be subject to a fine. Petitioners {65}: Anderson, Isaac; Hand, Patrick; Husbands, William;
McBride, Thomas; Pierce, Jesse.
1845.
0527. In 1809, Charles and another slave were arrested for theft and jailed. The other slave was
returned to his owner in Maryland, a woman in Queen Anne's County. Charles, however,
escaped from jail before he could be indicted and tried. Now, thirty-four years later, Andrew Gray
of Kent County seeks compensation for the loss of the slave Charles.
0538. Petitioners seek amendments to the law governing the retailing of liquor. They ask to
“separate intoxicating drinks from other articles of ordinary traffic—to require that a license to
retail them shall only be had in the manner now required for tavern license; that the tax be at least
$12; and that under no circumstances shall a sale either to or by negroes or mulattoes be
permitted.” The current license fee of $2.50, they argue, allows “the most abandoned negro” to
obtain “a legal commission to poison both morally and physically a whole neighborhood, or at
least to render worse than worthless almost all the servants within his reach.” Petitioners {43}:
Clements, James R.; Enos, Benjamin; Jones, Loadman; Mann, Joseph; Stockly, N.
0541. The petitioners seek legislative action to prevent the “Abolitionists of the East” from making
Delaware “the Theatre of their actions and abusive language.” They ask for laws to prevent the
state from being overrun by “vagrant negroes.” Petitioners {24}: Bishop, Jesse; Brackin, William;
McKibbin, James; Reed, Ezekiel; Slack, Hall.
0544. Twenty-seven residents of Kent County seek the repeal or modification of “An act relating
to fugitives from labor.” With rivers extending from Marcus Hook to Lewestown, it was easy for a
well-intentioned citizen unknowingly to carry “a worthless slave” out of the state and thus expose
himself to harsh penalties. Only those who “knowingly and willfully” violate the law should be held
accountable, and the current law should be so modified. Petitioners {27}: Hamilton, Lewis, Jr.;
Humphreys, Joseph; Jester, Peter; Macy, Joseph; Milds, John.
0547. Residents of Smyrna seek a law preventing people of color and others from assembling in
the streets, especially during the holiday seasons. They also ask that the law prohibit “firing
guns[,] crackers[,] Squibbs[,]” etc., as well as throwing fireballs. A law should be passed halting
these dangerous practices, they contend. Petitioners {63}: Barton, Joseph; Fisher, Samuel M.;
McGinnis, J. R.; Patterson, Robert; Ringgold, William.
0550. The petitioner asks the Delaware legislature to authorize his purchase of the slave
Saulsbury from Roger Wright. In 1818, Maryland resident Roger Wright received permission from
the Delaware legislature to bring six slaves into the state. Wright was required, however, to
register the bill of sale for the slaves in the deeds office of Sussex County. In 1845, Jacobs states
that he attempted to purchase the slave Saulsbury for one hundred twenty dollars but could not
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find the slave’s registration. Jacobs speculates that Wright did not know he had to register
Saulsbury at his birth. Jacobs asks the legislature to “revive” the 1818 act so he can enter the bill
of sale for the slave on the record and consummate his transaction with Wright. Petitioner:
Jacobs, Thomas.
0553. In 1842, John Anderson was shot in the neck by his servant, Thomas Brown, who was tried
and convicted of attempted murder. Brown was sentenced to seven years of servitude and was
sold to Elijah McDowell of Maryland for $200. After paying costs, the sheriff of Kent County still
had $130.19, which he turned over to the state treasury. Anderson asks the legislature to pass an
act authorizing the state to pay him the surplus.
0558. In 1835, William Hudson secured an indenture on a six-year-old child of color, John
Conway. The child, bound out by his father, Abraham Conway, until the age of twenty-three, was
released in 1842 by the New Castle County Court because the indenture had not been recorded.
Hudson seeks a law that would make the indenture legal and enable him to retain Conway as an
apprentice.
0562. In a printed three-line petition, eleven Delaware women ask the legislature to “take speedy
and adequate measures for effecting the immediate abolition of slavery within this
commonwealth.” Petitioners {11}: Pennington, Mary E.; Phillips, Albina; Phillips, Elizabeth;
Wilson, Abigail J.; Wilson, Eliza.
0565. Sussex County. In 1834, William Lowe sent his son, James, to Somerset County in
Maryland to live with Clement Beach, the boy's uncle. In 1844, the uncle died and left James
Lowe, now seventeen, the slaves Isaac and Charlotte. As guardian of his minor son, William
Lowe seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission bring the slaves from Maryland to Delaware.
0568. James Law owns land and slaves in both Delaware and Maryland. He seeks exemption
from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks
permission to transport his slaves back and forth between the two states.
0571. Sussex County. Elijah Cannon purchased a fishery in Dorchester County, Maryland, in
1842. He seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and
exportation of slaves and asks permission to work his slaves in Maryland. Cannon was “the
owner of several slaves whom he could profitably employ in hauling his seine at said fishery, and
about other work & business connected therewith."
0574. Kent County. Maryland resident John Black states that he plans to move to Delaware and
that he owns lands in both states. Black seeks exemption from the Delaware law designed to
prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission to work his slaves in both
states.
0578. Delaware residents ask the legislature to “take speedy and adequate measures for
effecting the immediate abolition of slavery within this commonwealth.” Petitioners {82}:
Chambers, Caroline; Chambers, Elizabeth; Chambers, Susanna; Thompson, Daniel;
Tyson, Samuel.
0585. New Castle County. “The petition of the undersigned, inhabitants of the said state,
respectfully asks that you will enact a suitable law for effecting the extinction of slavery within this
commonwealth.” Petitioners {60}: Chandler, William; Hilles, Eli; Hilles, Samuel; Starr, Isaac;
Webb, Thomas D. Petitioners {51}: Chandler, Purthena; Conrad, Rachel; Gilpin, Lydia W.;
McCalb, Esther Ann; Nicols, Margaret.
Reel 2 Delaware
36
0592. New Castle County. “The petition of the undersigned, inhabitants of the said state,
respectfully asks that you will take speedy and adequate measures for effecting the immediate or
gradual abolition of slavery within this commonwealth.” Petitioners {53}: Farris, Jacob; Ferris,
C. E.; Griffith, William J.; James, Margaret; Shields, Susanna.
0594. New Castle County. “The petition of the undersigned, inhabitants of the said state,
respectfully asks that you will enact a suitable law for effecting the extinction of slavery within this
commonwealth.” Petitioners {48}: Duncan, B. W.; Duncan, Martha; Harlan, Mary; Marshall, John;
Philips, Albia. Petitioners {44}: Bartley, Margaret; Brannion, Margaret; Griffin, Robert D.; Pusey,
Jacob; Pusey, Saml. N.
0598. New Castle County. “The petition of the undersigned, inhabitants of the said state,
respectfully asks that you will take speedy and adequate measures for effecting the immediate
abolition of slavery within this commonwealth.” Petitioners {82}: Bonney, Betsey P.; Currender,
Jacob; Haughey, Sarah; Rhees, Morgan J.; Semple, Anne.
0601. New Castle County. “The Petition of the undersigned, inhabitants of the said state,
respectfully asks that you will enact a suitable law for effecting the extinction of slavery within this
commonwealth.” Petitioners {12}: Ely, Caroline; Flint, Isaac S.; Heald, Hannah P.; Pusey, Edith;
Webb, William.
0603. New Castle County. “The petition of the undersigned, inhabitants of the said state,
respectfully asks that you will take speedy and adequate measures for effecting the immediate
abolition of slavery within this commonwealth.” Petitioners {39}: Flint, Isaac; Heald, Hannah P.;
Newcomb, Joseph T.; Pusey, Edith; Webb, William. Petitioners {63}: Palmer, Mary W.; Tatnall,
Rachel R.; Webb, Catharine; Webb, Eliza; Webb, Lydia P.
1846.
0610. The petitioner asks the governor to direct “All persons of all grades and colors who retain
human men as Bond men” to refrain from working them on Sundays and days “Ordained as Holy
days by the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.” Petitioner: English, Launcelot P.
1847.
0615. New Castle County. Although incorporated by an act of the General Assembly in 1824, the
African School Society had existed as an association since 1809. Its goal, the petitioners state,
has been to support a school in Wilmington exclusively for the benefit of children of color. “The
Society are still pursuing upon their original principles the same purpose: they believe, that the
effect has been to elevate and meliorate the mental and moral character, and the social condition
of those to whom the benefits of instruction provided, have been extended.” The society seeks an
act to enlarge their allocated property holdings to $15,000. Petitioners {21}: Bellah, Edward;
Ferris, Tiba; Knight, Dubre; Smyth, David; Webb, Benjamin.
0618. New Castle County. Free man of color Elias Handy was tried and convicted of rape and
sentenced to be sold into bondage for fourteen years. The petitioner holds Handy's indenture and
seeks compensation for the loss of his worker. Petitioner: Wolfe, Nathaniel.
0621. Residents of North and South Milford in Kent and Sussex counties complain about
“Negroes and others” who flooded the streets at night and on Sundays. The petitioners state that
to the great annoyance of the citizens, people of color used “all manner of profane language” and
went about “Yelling and bawling, boxing, wrestling & fighting.” The petitioners request that the
legislature force the local authorities “to perform their respective duties.” Petitioners (72): Adkins,
John W.; Cannon, Matthew; Fleming, Charles; Taylor, Henry; White, John M.
Reel 2 Delaware
37
0625. “The petition of the undersigned, inhabitants of the said State, respectfully asks that you
will ena[ct] a suitable law for effecting the extinction of Slavery within this Commonwealth.”
Petitioners {44}: Buckingham, Alban; Eastburn, David; Eastburn, Joseph; Lindsey, Joseph;
Lindsey, Joseph, Jr.
0628. “The undersigned citizens of New Castle Co. state of Delaware respectfully request you to
adopt some feasible plan to abolish slavery immediately throughout the state.” Petitioners {80}:
Healey, Jacob; Jackson, James C.; Jackson, John E.; Pusey, Jacob; Wilson, David.
0631. In response to an act in the Delaware House of Representatives seeking to emancipate all
slaves born after 1850, citizens of Sussex County advise the legislature to “abstain for the
present” from enacting any law on the subject. Rather than helping black people, such a law
would prompt many greedy slaveholders to sell their slaves and “forever exclude” any possibility
of the slaves obtaining their freedom. Petitioners {41}: Fooks, Benjamin; Green, Stephen; Moore,
Edward B.; Moore, John; Rust, Cotesby F.
0639. Jacob Nicholson owns land in Maryland and Delaware. He seeks exemption from the
Delaware law designed to prevent the importation and exportation of slaves and asks permission
to work his slaves on the land in both states.
0642. Kent County. Indentured servant Henry Cullen, a man of color, was convicted of burglary
and sold at auction for $280. The man who held the indenture, James Wilds, seeks $125.78 from
the legislature, money that was turned over to the state treasury after payment of jail fees, a $100
fine, and court costs.
0645. “The petition of the undersigned, inhabitants of the said State, respectfully asks that you
will enact a suitable law for effecting the extinction of Slavery within this Commonwealth.”
Petitioners {183}: Bringhurst, Jos.; Byrnes, J. F.; Cauley, Charles; Ferris, Tiba; Patterson,
Nicholas.
0652. New Castle County. The memorialists support an increase to $15,000 of the amount of
property that can be owned by the African School Society of Wilmington. The increase “could be
employed for the general benefit in providing good schools for the colored children in this city.”
Petitioners {31}: Hall, Willard; Parrington, H. B.; Porter, R. R.; Shipley, John; Thomson, Allan.
0655. “The petition of the undersigned, inhabitants of the said State, respectfully asks that your
will ena[ct] a suitable law for effecting the extinction of Slavery within this Commonwealth.”
Petitioners {44}: Buckingham, Alban; Eastburn, David; Eastburn, Jos.; Lindsey, Joseph; Lindsey,
Joseph, Jr.
1849.
0659. Free people of color seek to repeal the law requiring them to produce passes or freedom
papers when travelling from one area to another. Any white man, though his character be much
“blacker Then our Skins,” could take them up. They might remain in jail six weeks before being
able to prove their free status. Petitioners {29}: Berry, Caleb; Brinkley, Nathaniel; Caldwell, Palm;
Caldwell, Prince; Caldwell, Thomas.
0663. “We the undersigned Citizens of your State, do hereby most solemnly protest and
remonstrate against any Law being passed by your Honorable body, abolishing Slavery in the
State of Delaware.” Petitioners {44}: Allen, M. W.; Cannon, Daniel; Ross, William H.; Rust, P. N.;
Wright, Charles.
Reel 2 Delaware
38
0665. Residents of the Camden area seek a special legislative act to punish the “notorious Saml.
D. Burris a free Negroe or Mulatto who still persists in the nefarious practice of enticing Servants
& Slaves away from their masters.” He had been convicted of the offense before but continued in
the same manner, they state. Petitioners {29}: Clements, Joel; Jackson, J. W.; Lockwood, W. K.;
Martindale, Thomas; Slaughter, William.
0668. New Castle County. In 1827, Benjamin Holt, a free man of color, signed a contract to buy
forty acres from Edward Wilson, a white man. When Holt had nearly paid off the purchase price
he learned that Wilson had become “a person of unsound mind.” Holt asks the legislature to pass
an act in which “all the right title and estate of the Said Edward Wilson in the said Tract of land
shall be conveyed to Your petitioner and his heirs."
0672. The petitioners request that the legislature amend an 1811 law that declared all free
persons of color who left and remained out of the state for more than six months nonresidents
and thus subject to the penalties and restrictions imposed upon free persons of color attempting
to immigrate into Delaware. The petitioners seek to reduce the time to thirty days. Petitioners
{199}: Bacon, Henry; Green, Stephen; Horsey, G. W.; Moore, J. Y.; Moore, Louther T.
0676. “Your petitioners, votable citizens of the state of Delaware[,] respectfully ask that you will
enact such laws, as in your wisdom, may be deemed necessary for the immediate abolition of
slavery in Delaware, with the least possible injury to vested rights.” Petitioners {241}: Bacon,
Henry; Green, Stephen; Horsey, G. W.; Moore, J. Y.; Moore, Louther T.
0685. “Your petitioners, votable citizens of the state of Delaware, respectfully ask that you will
enact such laws, as in your wisdom, may be deemed necessary for the immediate abolition of
slavery in Delaware, with the least possible injury to vested rights.” Petitioners {243}: Bringhurst,
Jos.; Canby, Charles; Ferris, Tiba; Hilles, Eli; Megear, Wm. V. Petitioners {91}: Hoopes, Alfred;
Hoopes, Barton; Kersey, Guard C.; Remington, William; White, Robert.
0705. Women residents of Delaware petition for the abolition of slavery. “Your petitioners,
inhabitants of the state of Delaware, respectfully ask that you will enact such laws, as in your
wisdom, may be deemed necessary for the immediate abolition of slavery in Delaware, with the
least possible injury to vested rights.” Petitioners {40}: Garrett, Rachel; Neeper, Phebe H.; Rhees,
Grace W.; Semple, Anne; Shields, Susanna.
0707. “Your petitioners, votable citizens of the state of Delaware, respectfully ask that you will
enact such laws, as in your wisdom, may be deemed necessary for the immediate abolition of
slavery in Delaware, with the least possible injury to vested rights.” Petitioners {38}: Dixon, A. H.;
Hobson, Benjamin; Lindsey, Joseph; Wilson, Jonathan; Worrell, Thomas.
0710. Citizens of Sussex County ask that the 1760 law regarding emancipation be amended so
that all petitions for freedom are presented by “a next friend,” a free white citizen of the county
where the petition is being filed. In addition, if not submitted by the parties for a judge's decision,
a jury should decide freedom cases, and the costs should “follow the decision” as with other
cases in the superior court. Sussex County Petitioners {22}: Davis, H. P.; Day, Levin B.;
Pettyjohn, James; Sipple, C. B.; Wilson, Minus C. Petitioners {32}: Allen, M. W.; Dawson,
Thomas; McNeilly, William S.; Robinson, J. W.; Smith, William.
0715. The petitioners ask that the legislature “enact such laws, as in your wisdom, may be
deemed necessary for the immediate abolition of slavery in Delaware, with the least possible
injury to vested rights.” Petitioners {40}: Bassett, Ann; Garrett, Rachel; Hewes, Sally G.; Semple,
Anne; Wayne, Sally.
0718. The petitioners, “votable citizens of the State of Delaware[,] respectfully ask that you will
enact such laws, as in your wisdom, may be deemed necessary for the immediate abolition of
Reel 2 Delaware
39
slavery in Delaware, with least possible injury to vested rights.” Petitioners {91}: Hersey, Gerard
C.; Hoopes, Alfred; Hoopes, Barton; Remington, William; White, Robert.
0722. The petitioners ask the legislature to enact “such laws, as in your wisdom, may be deemed
necessary for the immediate abolition of slavery in Delaware, with the least possible injury to
vested rights.” Petitioners {243}: Bringhurst, Jos.; Canby, Charles; Ferris, Tiba; Hilles, Eli;
Megear, Wm. P.
0734. “Your petitioners, votable citizens of the state of Delaware[,] respectfully ask that you will
enact such laws, as in your wisdom, may be deemed necessary for the immediate abolition of
slavery in Delaware, with the least possible injury to vested rights.” Petitioners {241}: Bridge,
David; Flint, Isaac S.; Greenhalgh, Wm.; McHugh, Patrick; Stansfield, Saml.
1852.
0741. Kent County. In 1850, “a Small black boy” belonging to James Bewley was kidnapped on
the streets of Smyrna and carried to Maryland. Bewley offered a reward for the slave's return.
One of the kidnappers was arrested and jailed in Dover; the second, following a request from the
governor of Delaware, was arrested in Maryland but broke out of jail and later died. Friends and
relatives of Bewley ask that he be reimbursed for his expenses. Petitioners {5}: Bewley, John H.;
Cloak, Eben; Cummings, George W.; Davis, George; Raymond, Jacob.
1853.
0744. Kent County. Free people of color petition the government to repeal the 1851 acts
regulating slaves, free people of color, servants, and apprentices. The laws are “grievously
oppressive.” Especially burdensome was the stipulation prohibiting free people of color from
entering the state unless as a servant for a white man or as a seaman on a trading vessel. This
prevented family members from visiting one another if they lived across state lines. There were
also penalties for resident free persons of color who stayed out of the state more than sixty days.
“We endeavor to perform the duties of good, orderly citizens, and it bears hard on us not to be
allowed the privilege of seeking to do better elsewhere without losing our residence and being
subject to arrest, fine, imprisonment and sale, provided we return temporarily to visit our families
and friends.” They argue that, like their “white brethren,” they profess the Christian religion and
ask God for “salvation of our souls hereafter.” Petitioners {27}: America, Moses; Bell, Alexander;
Brown, Francis; Draper, John; Jacobs, Richard.
0746. New Castle County. Residents protest the 1851 laws concerning free people of color and
slaves, servants, and apprentices. They argue that the laws are driving free people of color out of
Delaware and into New Jersey and Pennsylvania, “where their just rights are better protected.”
The emigration caused an increase in the price of labor. Meanwhile, thousands of dollars were
being lost by Delaware steamboat owners and businessmen because free people of color did not
enter the state for religious services as they had previously. In short, the laws were neither just
nor humane and should be repealed. Petitioners {39}: Allan, William; Eastburn, Isaac; Heald,
Caleb; Lindsey, Joseph; Mitchell, Abner.
0749. New Castle County. Free people of color petition the government to repeal the 1851 acts
regulating slaves, free people of color, servants, and apprentices. The laws are “grievously
oppressive.” Especially burdensome was the stipulation prohibiting free people of color from
entering the state unless as a servant for a white man or as a seaman on a trading vessel. This
prevented family members from visiting one another if they lived across state lines. There were
also penalties for resident free persons of color who stayed out of the state more than sixty days.
“We endeavor to perform the duties of good, orderly citizens, and it bears hard on us not to be
allowed the privilege of seeking to do better elsewhere without losing our residence and being
subject to arrest, fine, imprisonment and sale, provided we return temporarily to visit our families
and friends.” They argue that, like their “white brethren,” they profess the Christian religion and
Reel 2 Delaware
40
ask God for “salvation of our souls hereafter.” Petitioners {221}: Anderson, Levi; Biyard, Bernard;
Graves, Robert; Jackson, James; Price, Joseph.
0754. New Castle County. Residents protest the 1851 laws concerning free people of color and
slaves, servants, and apprentices. They argue that the laws are driving free people of color out of
Delaware and into New Jersey and Pennsylvania, “where their just rights are better protected.”
The emigration caused an increase in the price of labor. Meanwhile, thousands of dollars were
being lost by Delaware steamboat owners and businessmen because free people of color did not
enter the state for religious services as they had previously. In short, the laws were neither just
nor humane and should be repealed. Petitioners {42}: Bird, Harry B.; Downing, George; Hammutt,
Edmund M.; Latimer, John R.; Wise, John. Petitioners {61}: Crookes, Samuel; Johnson, P.
Sheama; Lawrence, Henry; Lear, John M.; Riddle, James. Petitioners {43}: Betts, Edward; Knight,
Dubre; Robinson, John T.; Robinson, William; Stephens, Geo. Petitioners {297}: Bradford,
Moses; Chandler, William; Huxley, Elihu; Lee, Alfred; Milligan, J. J.
0772. Kent County. Free people of color petition the government to repeal the 1851 acts
regulating slaves, free people of color, servants, and apprentices. The laws are “grievously
oppressive.” Especially burdensome was the stipulation prohibiting free people of color from
entering the state unless as a servant for a white man or as a seaman on a trading vessel. This
prevented family members from visiting one another if they lived across state lines. There were
also penalties for resident free persons of color who stayed out of the state more than sixty days.
“We endeavor to perform the duties of good, orderly citizens, and it bears hard on us not to be
allowed the privilege of seeking to do better elsewhere without losing our residence and being
subject to arrest, fine, imprisonment and sale, provided we return temporarily to visit our families
and friends.” They argue that, like their “white brethren,” they profess the Christian religion and
ask God for “salvation of our souls hereafter.” Petitioners {26}: Brinkley, Nathaniel; Brinkley,
William; Clark, John C.; Lewis, Peter; Miller, James.
0775. Kent County. Residents protest the 1851 laws concerning free people of color and slaves,
servants and apprentices. They argue that the laws are driving free people of color out of
Delaware and into New Jersey and Pennsylvania, “where their just rights are better protected.”
The emigration caused an increase in the price of labor. Meanwhile, thousands of dollars were
being lost by Delaware steamboat owners and businessmen because free people of color did not
enter the state for religious services as they had previously. In short, the laws were neither just
nor humane and should be repealed. Petitioners {76}: Dickson, William R.; Jackson, Caleb;
Lowber, Michael; McBride, Joseph; Wallace, Benjamin.
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